


Sleight of Hand

by Babykitsune9



Category: Bleach, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Cunning ichigo, F/M, Female Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichigo is dangerous, Ichigo is tony's biological daughter, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Happy Hogan, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Ross is a bastard, hydra has tony, seriously dangerous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:00:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 41,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25322029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babykitsune9/pseuds/Babykitsune9
Summary: Despite not ever knowing that Isshin Kurosaki wasn't her real father, Ichigo's time as a Soul Reaper had served her well.She was intelligent, adaptable- and rose to every challenge imaginable. Now that the latest War was over, her life was upheaved yet again when she learns of her true origins, and the people who need her help. Fem Ichigo. No pairing yet.
Relationships: Ichigo Kurosaki & Bucky barnes, Kurosaki Ichigo & Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 181





	1. Chapter 1

_Why did this happen?_ She wondered dully, her mind still dazed from the shock of learning that her dad wasn't actually her dad. Biologically anyways. Merely someone who had experimented on her _after_ conversing with her real dad about taking care of her since he didn't think that he could.

Honestly she wanted to be angry. Truly if she were anyone else, she probably would be. After all, it wasn't everyday that a sixteen year old girl found out that her biological dad was actually _frigging_ Tony Stark.

The genius behind Stark Industries. The world renowned creator of some really fucking awesome technology. And the man whom had built his first prototype Iron Man suit in a cave. Which she would admit, was more than a little bit _impressive_.

After all, the only other person that she knew who could pull off such a thing was Kisuke.

Twitching a little bit as she heard the car's driver roll down the glass separating the front of the vehicle from the back, she steeled herself for whatever was about to happen as the guy glanced back at her and frowned and then asked, "Are you okay kid?"

She didn't bother vocalizing her answer. She doubted that the guy really cared all that much that she wasn't okay anyways. So instead she merely nodded her head.

The guy didn't look convinced about her...okay-ness. "Look, kid- I know that you're probably feeling a lot of anger." _That's an understatement._ "And probably really lost right now too." _Another understatement._ "But Tony isn't the bad guy that everyone makes him out to be in the media. And with him missing- especially after the whole Civil War thing that went down between the Avengers... It's understandable that you would be dragged into this to run things until his return. I mean, you are his sole heir after all."

She sighed tiredly knowing that the guy was right.

But it didn't help her any as far as her job as a Soul Reaper went. In fact being the sole living heir to such a _public_ and _important_ person simply put her in the very precarious position where she'd have the eyes of the people on her twenty four/seven.

It just...wasn't a good position to be in. Especially for her.

And the knowledge of this was compounded even more by what she knew about the Sokovian Accords. Which was just _one_ of her many, many jobs to take care of in her...dad's place, at least until his return anyways.

"Do you want me to stop anywhere before we get to the compound? You've been sitting in cramped vehicles ever since yesterday evening. So it might be good for you to get out and stretch your legs a bit."

"No thanks." She sounded more curt than she meant to, and saw the man thin his lips a little bit before nodding his head and then went back to driving her in silence while she allowed herself to zone out a little bit.

A short time later the car was pulling up to a large building with high fences, a football field length track, a basketball court and a few other things. All of which caused her to gape a little bit. Mostly because she was apparently going to be living here for the next few years. And of course there was that stubborn little 'commoners' voice of absolute and utter disbelief in her head that came from growing up with her...uh... _whatever_ he was.

She had known that her dad was rich, but honestly she had expected something barely as grand as the place she'd lived in most of her life. After all, she'd grown up in cramped two story, one bathroom, three bedroom home with a barely hospitable, functioning _shack_ attached to it that served as a clinic.

How on earth did anyone expect her to get used to _this_ and function? She was used to things on a much smaller scale!

"Alright, kid. Here we are. Home, sweet, home."

She turned her head and just stared at the man for a moment wondering who exactly he was trying to kid here. This wasn't a home. It was a frigging palace! She didn't want to live here.

For god's sake, she was going to wind up getting lost somewhere in the damned thing and dying of starvation or something! She'd be like Kenpachi zero point two!

She was about to ask if they could leave when her car door suddenly opened and she all but fell out of the vehicle before she realized what was happening. The man cursed and started to reach down to help her back up when a woman with red hair came walking up to them.

"Happy, thank you so much for going and collecting Miss Kurosaki." She said as she hugged the torn looking man while she lay there at his feet and just blinked at them both.

"You're welcome Pepper." Happy said as he patted the woman's back awkwardly before the two separated and then she found herself being stared at by not one, but two very concerned looking people. _Awesome._ She thought sarcastically as Happy reached down and slipped his hands underneath her arms and hoisted her up off of the ground.

"Are you alright Ichigo?" Pepper asked as she reached out to push her hair back from her face. Ichigo jerked her head back a little bit since hands being near her face was rarely ever a _good_ thing and internally cringed a little bit at the small hurt look that the woman gave her before she pasted on an awkward smile.

"I'm fine." She mumbled after a second or so of not knowing what else to say as the woman nodded her head at her and then started talking,

"Welcome, Ichigo. This is the new Avenger's compound as well as your new home." She said as Happy scampered off to pull her bags out of the trunk. Leaving her standing there with the red head, feeling more than a little bit overwhelmed. "If the Rogues hadn't have left then you would have lived here with them as well as Tony."

Happy came back a few seconds later with two duffle bags and a small roll on suit case as Pepper turned and started walking as she talked.

"I know that you must have a lot of questions about what is going on and why you're here. But for now, I'd like to shelve those so that I can show you where your room is and then a few other places. Also, your dad's brother in all but blood, Colonel James Rhodes also lives here, and will be acting as your guardian as per Tony's instructions since your still a minor."

Ichigo remained silent as Pepper led her and Happy inside of the building. The inside of the compound was just as huge and mind boggling as the outside was. And in all honesty- she tried not to gape at her surroundings like a total idiot. But it was difficult.

The place was frigging _amazing_.

"I'm assuming that you've read the Accords." Pepper asked as she led them onto an elevator.

Ichigo was finally able to snap out of her funk long enough to nod her head solemnly in response. "Yeah, I read it." She finally said after a heartbeat or so.

"What did you think of it?" Pepper asked curiously.

"I think it's a travesty of trampled human rights." Ichigo said honestly. Because it was. The Sokovian Accords were a mess of trampled human rights and a suspicious lack of basic human decency. In all honesty, it was a wonder the 'Rogue' Avenger's hadn't left much sooner.

Sure, she understood what they had been written for. Even she had heard of _Ultron_ and Sokovia's massive losses. Accountability was nice. It was even good. However, when someone put a mess of words that someone didn't look through with a fine toothed comb in front of others and people started acting like animals... Well, then 'accountability' turned into a play ground of bullies kicking sand into other people's faces.

"Oh? You found something that you don't agree with, I take it."

"I found a lot that I don't agree with. And even more that I wouldn't agree with even if a gun was held to my head." She said as she leaned her shoulders against the wall of the elevator and crossed her arms and ankles before asking, "Didn't anyone from the legal department go over it _before_ it was submitted to the Accords Council?"

"Sadly, no. Tony wouldn't allow it." Pepper said as she stared at her for a moment.

It was strange, but when she'd heard that Tony had a kid. A daughter- she had expected a whiny little pampered princess who would make demands and probably be totally useless to them as far as keeping SI, and all that Tony had worked so hard for out of the hands of General Ross and his government lackeys, went anyways.

But Ichigo was really a shock to her. The girl not only seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, but also seemed to have a pretty good grasp of _everything_ as far as the Accords went too.

Tony would be so proud that if he were here with them right now, he'd be strutting around just like a peacock.

"Well he should have. There were a lot of things in it that were not only incredibly questionable, but totally insane. You don't act like people _aren't_ people and make totally irrational demands of them if you don't want a rebellion on your hands."

"Not only that, but there is very little in those damned documents that protects their rights as people. As human beings. There's literally nothing in here that says that they have a right to attorney, trial, or anything if they are falsely arrested. It's just..."

"Wrong?" Pepper prompted.

The girl sighed heavily and lifted a hand to brush her long bangs out of her face before finally saying, "Irredeemably cruel and inhumane."

"Do you think that the Rogues were right to fight him?" Pepper asked. Anxious to know exactly what Tony's girl thought of him.

"No. I think that if they had really cared enough to try, they might have managed to talk him into amending the Accords enough to satisfy everyone. But instead they decided to throw a world class hissy fit like a bunch of frigging children." Ichigo sighed again. "It's probably a good thing that they all ran. If they had been captured, they would have likely been killed. I doubt that that was what Tony would have wanted. Much less been able to live with."

"You're probably right." Pepper said with a small smile. She was beginning to like the girl. And from the small glance she took in Happy's direction, he seemed rather impressed by Tony's girl too.

Which was good since she was technically their new boss.


	2. Chapter 2

The moment That Rhodey met Ichigo, he wasn't all that sure what to think of her. But then he hadn't been expecting a nearly six foot tall sixteen year old, exotic beauty with neon blue eyes and an Elvira, Mistress of the Dark-esque hair style either. So naturally he was just a _tad_ bit startled when he saw her.

So much so that he nearly asked someone if they even had the right kid.

Both Pepper and Happy were standing over by the door observing the two with a peculiar look of anxiety on both of their faces. Almost as if they expected her to snub the him because he was currently crippled from the waist down and had to wear the old braces that Tony had made for him ages ago, just to walk.

Or for some other ridiculous reason, like the color of his skin.

However those things didn't seem to bother the girl at all. In fact she appeared to be the type of person who simply didn't _see_ things like skin color and disability. She saw a person.

Nothing more and nothing less.

"My name is James Rhodes." He said as he shook the girl's hand. "I'm a Colonel in the U.S Air Force. And you are...Tony's little girl?"

The second that he let go of her hand, she moved into a salute. Her form was flawless too. She even got the right arm up for it as she introduced herself in a respectful, and somewhat practiced, military-esque manner. "Sir. My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, sir. I'm a recently retired military general, sir!"

He blinked at her. Not really knowing whether or not she was joking around about her 'retired military general' ranking and waved his hand at her and told her to be at ease. Noting that she immediately relaxed her stance, but stayed in place.

"Tony never mentioned that you were a general, kid." He said, wanting to ask her about the ranking and how she came up with it. But at the same time wanting to wave it off as simply a kid wanting to look cool for the adults.

"It's not exactly public knowledge, sir. If it had been...I would likely have been captured and imprisoned- or even murdered a long time ago."

"Oh? Privy to a lot of secrets are you?" He asked half jokingly, despite the fact that his mind had already seized onto her previous uttered words and was working furiously for _some_ sort of logical explanation for them. All of which he already wasn't liking one little bit since it would point to some very questionable things about her upbringing.

"More than you can fathom." She said honestly. If not a tad bit cryptically. He sobered up pretty damned fast after hearing _that_ response.

Curiosity piqued, he decided to give her a little quiz and throw in a few questions as well. Just to be absolutely sure whether or not she was pulling his leg. "Okay, you got me curious. Why exactly is it not public knowledge that you are former military?"

"As you asked before, I know things that normal people do not about the world around them. Not only that, but the backlash that the Japanese government would suffer for drafting me at twelve in a half would be immense." Rhodey looked at her as if she were crazy. He couldn't help it. Drafted? At _twelve in a half_? That was insane!

Even for the stiff's in the Japanese government.

"It isn't well known to anyone without the proper clearance, but I was drafted under extenuating circumstances to help with several rebellions and wars that were waged by a deranged mad man. And several branch units of the group known as Hydra whom at one point or another had managed to get a somehow get a hold of world wide nuclear launch codes and were going to use them."

His jaw dropped open in stupefied disbelief.

He wasn't the only one either. Both Happy and Pepper looked pretty goddamned _shocked_ too. Especially when she hesitantly went on to say, "I-If you don't believe me, I have some copies of my files in my suit case that you can look through. I also have my updated physical health file, and my most recent psych evaluation too."

Barely two second later both Happy and Pepper were tearing through her suit case, tossing a few things here and there in a careless manner before Happy made a triumphant sound. And then quickly pulled a couple thick files out of the case and held them up for Pepper and him to see.

Pepper looked pissed enough to set something on fire with her eyes. Happy looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. Not that any of them could really blame the man any.

And Rhodey...well, he just looked back at the kid and sighed. _Well damn_. It looked like she hadn't just been trying to look cool for the adults after all. He wasn't sure at the moment if that was a good thing or bad thing.

But from the looks of those files, he would definitely find out soon enough.

"Alright, kid, alright. How about...we maybe get some grub and sit down and talk a little bit." Rhodey said coaxingly as he motioned for Happy to bring him the files as Pepper slowly got back to her feet and dusted herself off and then briskly walked over and asked,

"Any ideas what you would like to eat?"

"I'm not a picky eater ma'am." Ichigo replied, feeling as if she just might jump out of her skin any second now.

Pepper gave her a somewhat strained smile and gently patted her cheek with one of her hands and then glanced at Rhodey and said, "I'll call out for several things and all of you can pick what you want from that."

Rhodey nodded his head and then glanced back towards Ichigo and motioned for the girl to move closer as Pepper moved off to do as she had said she would.

* * *

Forty five minutes later, all of them were sitting down at a table fixing their plates. Ichigo herself was somewhat hesitant to eat much of anything, despite being hungry. Because she didn't want her own carefully concealed anxiety to make her sick.

The absolute last thing that she needed at the moment was to start puking. Because not only was it embarrassing, but it left her feeling weak and shaky.

And she couldn't be _weak_ or _shaky_. Not in such unfamiliar territory. She'd had it drilled into her head that appearing weak under any circumstances was to literally invite trouble.

"Ichigo, honey is that all that your going to eat?" Pepper asked curiously as she eyed the girl's plate.

She had barely touched anything from the nice spread that she'd ordered for them all given that she didn't know the teens usual favorites. She'd hoped that she would have been able to pick something that she might like, so that she could make a note to get it for her again later on.

But maybe that had been too much to hope for given Ichigo's lack of an appetite.

"I-I'm just not really hungry right now." Ichigo said with a small grimace as she sat a little bit straighter in her seat as Rhodey asked,

"It's your anxiety isn't it?" Ichigo didn't really respond but she did give the man a weird look for a second as he went on to say, "It makes the food settle like lead in your stomach. It's part of the reason that you aren't eating."

She flushed a little bit and promptly looked away as he then asked, "Did you at least _like_ anything that was on your plate?"

"Yeah, the pizza is pretty good. The...pasta salad is pretty good too-" Pepper perked up instantly at the mention of the 'good' foods and waited for the girl to continue. "The sushi, pastries, noodles, and beef dumplings are all pretty good too. So is the veggie soup."

"But half of that isn't even on your plate. How do you know if it's good or not?" Happy asked.

"I have a nose, don't I?" Happy nodded his head mutely as Rhodey decided to save the girl by suddenly saying,

"So, Ichigo, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself? Ya know, _outside_ of your previous military career."

She actually squirmed a little bit in her seat as all three of them turned to stare at her expectantly while she tried to wrack her brain for whatever information they might be wanting when Pepper gently hinted, "How's school? Do you have a lot of friends?"

Ichigo nearly gave in to the nearly irresistible urge to stand up and reach across the table and kiss the woman as she nodded her head and said, "I finished school with honors a couple of months ago."

"Really? You're pretty young to have finished already." Happy said in a slightly surprised tone.

"I've got an above average IQ. And I'm very goal oriented. High school was a breeze, regardless of how much time I missed because of work."

"Okay, well... What about college? Do you plan to go?"

"No. Aside from finishing High School early, I've been taking college classes every summer and weekend since I started my second year of Jr. High. I already have some major _and_ minor degrees in science, engineering, law, medicine and business."

"You're kidding!" Pepper practically shouted as she leaned forward a little bit in her seat. "I- You-"

Ichigo frowned at the woman as Rhodey calmly said, "Give her a second, kid. I think that you blew her mind a little bit."

"Is there anything else? Outside of school and work? Friends? Hobby's?"

"I have a little bit of both. My hobby's are personal projects that I usually work on in whatever spare time I have. And I do have some friends. And all of them are really great. But they can also be total jerks sometimes." She said with a little bit of a goofy grin. Rhodey and Happy both snorted in amusement while Pepper merely shook her head and smiled fondly before she tacked on, "They promised to watch over my family and everyone else for me while I'm here. My younger sisters and a few select others that I know tend to get themselves into mischief when I'm not around, so...I worry. Ya know?"

Rhodey couldn't help the smirk that crossed his lips. After all, he understood _that_ feeling of nearly overwhelming concern all to well. From the nods that Happy and Pepper gave, they understood that feeling too.

As they all should since they were literally Tony's wranglers.


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner ended shortly after that. Though they stayed seated at the table, talking well into the evening about everything that was expected of her while she was present at the compound. And she wouldn't lie, their expectations of her were _overwhelming_.

However for someone who had literally fought in wars against people of great and insurmountable power ever since she had become a Soul Reaper- then despite how overwhelmed she currently felt- she was far from daunted.

She'd risen to every challenge ever thrown at her. And this would be no different.

It had been explained that she would have to go before the media and they would have to address the people of the public about Tony's disappearance. And the fact that she had blood ties to him. Though she was adamant about _withholding_ specific information about how exactly she was blood kin to Mr. Stark as well as a few other things.

Like her military career and her education.

All of which the three adults reluctantly agreed to after having her explain her reasons why.

And her reasoning was fairly simple, she wanted people to underestimate her. Especially since it would make things easier to weed out good people from the bad.

Pepper for one looked strangely _excited_ and downright blood thirsty at the prospect. Probably because she was hoping that that asshole General Ross would take one look at Ichigo and grossly underestimate her and suffer for it.

Rhodey supposed that he couldn't blame the woman any.

Ross had been a frigging pain in the ass ever since the whole 'Civil War' thing had happened between Tony and the Rogues. He'd also dropped by a few times to map out the stuff that he was hoping that he could get the government to _seize_ from them while Tony was gone.

Wouldn't he be bummed when the kid handed him his generous fat ass. Rhodey mused, feeling more than a little bit hopeful that he could be present when the girl tore into the man.

He also told her that she would be taking over Tony's position as the new leader of the Avenger's, and his position at SI. Though her job title at Stark Industries would be an unofficial title for a time. Depending solely on whether or not Tony could be found alive.

If he wasn't, then she would inherit everything as per Tony's instructions in his will.

His wealth, his company, his stocks and bonds, his homes and properties, the Iron Man suits, ect.

And of course, she would be taking Tony's place dealing with the Accords Council. However she wouldn't be doing it alone given her age. She'd agreed with him on that point.

And then muttered that they would need to set up some stuff that they could destroy, and tape a few pics of some people's faces to the items. That way the could pretend to destroy someone if they came home after dealing with the accords and vent before the stress gave them both a stroke.

Rhodey wasn't sure if he should approve of something like that or not, but Pepper was totally on board with the idea and asked if she could use a rocket launcher on a thingy with Ross's face attached to it.

Ichigo merely smiled at her and nodded. So Rhodey decided that it should be okay as long as he or Happy was around to supervise the two. Just to make sure that they didn't get too trigger happy and accidentally damage the compound or something.

It was nearly nine thirty at night before they managed to get around to everything. And during that time, Pepper had already scheduled and told Ichigo about an upcoming press conference within the next day or so, and what they would need to do before she could show her face at it.

As well as mentioned another soon-to-be another 'visit' from Ross and what she should expect from that. And by the time she was done informing the girl of what would need to be done, Ichigo was ready for some sleep.

Rhodey could empathize. Really he could.

Jet lag could be a bitch sometimes. Especially if you were used to one specific time zone.

The girl had done well to stay focused, and totally alert for as long as she had. Excusing herself from the table, Ichigo decided that it was probably a good enough time to go to bed and took a moment to thank all of them for talking with her. Not long after that, she and Pepper were disappearing from the room since she still hadn't been shown her bedroom yet.

Leaving Rhodey and Happy alone with the files and enough curiosity to decide to start going through them. Rhodey handed Happy the girl's psych file and her health file and then started to go through her 'military' file.

He wasn't sure what exactly he was expecting, but he'd hoped against hope that he wouldn't be looking at an honest to god military file. And had his hopes completely dashed as her honest-to-god-actually _real_ military career was laid out before him.

Scanning the pages, he had to bite the inside of his cheek to prevent a sting of foul oaths from leaving his mouth at what he was seeing. Happy however found a reason to swear up a blue streak, _loudly_ , and then some in her medical file.

"What have you found?" Rhodey asked warily as he looked away from the open file in front of him for a moment.

"She was tortured!" Happy growled. His lips were peeled back from his teeth in a vicious snarl as he re read the same sentence again. "These fuckers _tortured_ a twelve year old girl worse that Tony was when he was in Afghanistan, and they lied and told her that it was part of her 'training'!"

Rhodey sighed, not knowing how else to react to this information. But he couldn't help the nearly overwhelming sense of rage that he felt on her behalf. He couldn't imagine how terrified she must have been at the time. And he found that thinking about her 'training' pissed him off.

If he ever got the names of the people involved in 'training' her, he'd make damned sure that they died screaming for what they had done. And he'd make doubly sure that Pepper and Happy were there to make sure that the damned job got _done_.

"Do I want to know what they did to her?"

Happy spat, "Fuck no."

"The file have pictures?" Rhodey asked tentatively. Happy made a weird sound in the back of his throat and then nodded curtly. "Don't let Pepper see them, okay." Happy nodded again as he clenched his teeth and went back to the file in front of him as Rhodey did the same.

* * *

"And this is your room," Pepper said as she stepped aside and let Ichigo enter said room. The girl slipped by her quietly and looked around. "Each room in the compound was specifically designed to appear a lot like an large and ritzy apartment would. They have a completely furnished living room, a nice spacious bedroom, a small kitchen that you can stock up with any personal favorites for those days when you don't feel like socializing..."

"I have days like that off and on, depending on what's up." Ichigo said as she set her things down on the couch across the room and then started to explore her new room a little bit. Making sure to stay within Pepper's sight at all times out of habit.

Pepper noticed this too. Though she didn't understand the reason for it as she watched her move around curiously.

"Do you like it?" She asked hesitantly as she watched Ichigo slowly move to check out the kitchen. The girl paused for a moment with a cabinet partially open, and then turned her head and nodded.

"Yeah. It's fine."

"Do you really like it or are you just saying that?"

"I'm a minimalist, Ma'am. You could put me in the smallest closet in the place and I'd be just fine with it." Ichigo said honestly as she noted that the cabinets weren't as bare as she had initially believed them to be. There were some basic food stuffs. Spaghetti, and alfredo sauces and various types of noodles, some chicken flavored ramen, some random cans of soup. Closing the cabinet she moved to check out the fridge, noting that there were basic stuff in there too.

Milk, some veggies and different types of salad dressings, some fruits, and some sandwich stuff. And the freezer...well it had some vanilla, and chocolate flavored ice cream, some random flavored frozen pizzas, and some different meats.

If she needed or wanted anything else she'd likely have to get it herself. And that was fine. She'd have to purchase some stuff anyways so adding some groceries to her list wouldn't be terrible.

"Okay, so- the only thing that I have left to tell you before I leave you to settle in for the night is that if you need to buy anything, you can request Friday-" Ichigo turned her head to look at her as she closed the freezer. Her expression expectant. "Sorry, um, Friday is the AI that runs the compound and stuff. Tony, created her. She's part of the security system, and monitors the people living here for distress, threats, health and so on. If you need to request anything from any stores, she'll do it for you. All you have to do is tell her what you need." Pepper explained.

Ichigo nodded her head in understanding and then asked, "How?"

"Do you need something?" Pepper asked.

"I was going to make a few purchases. Clothing, some shoes, a computer, some-" She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the fridge. "Extra food, and maybe some odds and ends for the bathroom."

"Oh, okay. Alright...uh, do you need a card to pay for-" Pepper started to pull her touch pad out so that she could make a request for a bank card in Ichigo's name when the girl's hand appeared out of nowhere and lightly pushed her hands, and her touch pad, down.

"I was very well compensated for my former job, ma'am. There's no need for you to trouble yourself as far as money goes." She said gently. Pepper looked at her for a moment and then nodded before saying.

"That's good to know. But as Tony's girl you do have access to his money. Within reason, of course. His will specified that you should have about fifty thousand dollars to shop, decorate, and play with monthly."

Ichigo cringed a little bit. "Fifty thousand is a bit excessive for someone my age."

"Well, he has missed sixteen years worth of birthdays." Pepper said lamely. Ichigo snorted and shook her head.

"It's alright. You can invest the first few monthly allowances in some stock at SI for me."

"Really?" Pepper asked in an incredulous tone.

"Sure. I think it would be a good investment for the future. Don't you?"

Pepper gave her a dazzling smile as she replied. "Definitely."


	4. Chapter 4

Once Pepper explained how to request Friday to purchase things for her, and Ichigo took a few minutes to get acquainted with the AI, she felt a little bit more comfortable. Certainly enough to have Pepper leave her alone without Friday's voice to startle her out of her skin.

Friday was _incredible_. An artificial intelligence with her own unique personality and thoughts. She was simply amazing. "Remind me to shake Tony's hand for creating you once he's home again, Friday." She said as she grabbed a generic soda from the fridge before making her way towards the couch.

She still needed to unpack her stuff and take a shower and then grab some sleep.

"Sure thing, little boss." The AI said. Her artificial voice was programed to convey emotions, Ichigo noted, feeling even more impressed by her as she began to open up her bags and take things out.

According to Friday, the stuff that she'd already purchased online would be there in an hour. Which was...good, she supposed. Especially since it gave her some time to kill so that she could unpack and think of what else she might need. Once she finished putting her clothing and such away, she went back into the living room and flopped down onto the couch and simply sat there for several moments, thinking.

To her knowledge- at least the little bit that she had in regards to SI and Tony Stark... The billionaire was very social. Brilliant, but a little bit egotistic.

However aside from being very social, he also participated in various high function charities and events. Including fund raisers. So...aside from what little bit of new clothing she'd already purchased, she'd probably need to get some formal dresses too. Just in case she had to host a few of these events in the man's place.

Which was highly likely, at least for the moment.

Sighing, she wondered if she should wait to get Pepper's or someone else's input on things. But it was late and everyone was probably tired. And a little bit of planning ahead _wouldn't_ kill her. At least she hoped not anyways.

Perking up a little bit she decided to take the plunge and see if maybe Friday could help her with this. "Friday?"

"Yes, little boss?" The AI chimed almost automatically.

"I was wondering, with Tony gone...is there any chance that I would have to host some of his charity events?"

"Yes. I believe so."

Scrubbing her face with her hands, she then asked, "Do you know anyplace in the city where I can buy formal dresses. Nothing...gaudy, please," She said in a sudden rush, already imagining herself in something with rhinestones and glitter. _Bleh_. "Simple and tasteful is about as formal as I get. Ya know?"

"There are a few places. However if it would make things a little bit easier on you, Boss put some interesting programs in my system that will allow you to design your own clothing and put in requests at specific shops to have them hand made to your specifications. I believe that Pepper has used this program several times already for some of her formal clothing. And she was rather _pleased_ with the end results."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually. How do I-" She started to ask how she used it, especially since she didn't have a computer at the moment. And her cell phone was a basic piece that would be useless as far as linking up to the internet. Luckily, Friday seemed to grasp what she was about to ask and created a holographic image of her body, completely with her exact measurements.

Ichigo's eyes widened a little bit in shock, but she still leaned forward and checked the information on what she was seeing anyways. "Holy hell Friday! Tony tricked you out big time." She exclaimed in awe as she studied everything for a moment before then asking. "Okay, how do I use this accurately?"

It took Friday just a couple of minutes to explain how to use the holographic image to design her formal attire. Which, didn't take Ichigo long at all to sort out once she had all of the information. In fact her simple but nice designs had a touch of class and elegance that many people simply didn't appreciate anymore.

Certainly none that were the same age as her.

And by the time she was totally finished, she had four formal dresses. All of which were classy vintage style's. Knee length or ankle length. It didn't really matter as long as they were modest. The necklines were modest too. She had maybe two that were slightly immodest. One that was a wrap around halter top that went to a backless dress. And the other one had a sweetheart neckline.

The rest were all classical styles that were reminiscent of the forties and fifties.

She'd also designed several school uniforms too.

But those were considered to be work uniforms for her given the fact that she was going to play the part of a naive school girl as much as she could manage to get away with. She had however managed to customize the colors. Which was awesome.

She'd always hated the white and grey uniforms that she'd worn at her old school. The colors had always looked crappy on her. She had three uniforms in different designs and colors. She'd decided to get all of them and show them to Pepper and the others and get their opinion on which one suited her better.

Once she finished, Friday used the credit card information that she'd saved from her prior purchase to pay for everything and then told her that it would be two weeks or so before she got everything.

And really, Ichigo could live with that.

Sitting back on the couch, she lay her head back and closed her eyes- not really intending to doze off right there when there was still work to be done, but somehow managing to do so anyways.

* * *

Both Rhodey and Happy were drinking a bottle of whiskey by the time Pepper rejoined them. They were also scowling darkly down at the files in front of them. Which was pretty telling as far as the woman was concerned.

But what was the most telling of what they were seeing, was the fact that when she sat down- both men hunched over the files and tried to hide them from her keen gaze.

"It's pretty bad, huh?" She asked. Only wanting a small confirmation as far as what they were seeing. Both men grunted as Happy growled out.

"No good, terrible, very _bad_ -"

"Happy! Shut the hell up!" Rhodey snapped at the man. Happy flinched a little bit because it had literally been ages since Rhodey had last snapped at him in such a way. Besides, he'd been told to hide what he was reading from Pepper for a reason- this... This was just downright _gruesome_ and _horrible_ and even just plain wrong to him.

He couldn't imagine adults going through some of the stuff that he was reading in the file in front of him, let alone a twelve year old _kid_.

For fuck's sake, where the hell had her 'father' been?! Hadn't he bothered to try and contact Tony and fill him in on what was happening? Or had he simply not cared?

Either way he looked at it, he now utterly _loathed_ the man whom had raised the girl. And once Tony was found and brought home, he was personally going to fill him in on everything that he could recall about her 'adventures' as a child soldier.

Especially since he'd bet that the billionaire was going to shit a godamned brick about his daughter being 'forced' to serve a bunch of abusive _jackwangs_ in Japan's government.

Knowing Tony like he did, he'd likely suit up in his armor and go and hunt the dumb bastards that had hurt Ichigo down like frigging dogs.

_Ah, but a man can dream_. He thought idly as he skimmed over a particularly vicious looking picture of one of the girl's many, many scars and found himself literally whining in distress. Rhodey sighed upon hearing him and reached over and took the file from him and scooted the whiskey bottle just a tad bit closer to him.

He needed no further prompting, he snatched the bottle up from the table, took a moment to top Rhodey's glass off, and then quickly moved his ass out of the room.

He was fucking done for the night.

* * *

The moment that Happy was out of the room, Pepper asked, "Does she have any issues that we should be concerned about?"

"Nothing that requires meds or _immediate_ medical attention." Rhodey replied as he scanned the latest report in the file.

"How's her psych eval?"

"Not sure. I haven't looked yet."

"Give it here and I'll check it for you." Pepper said as she held a hand out. Rhodey's head came up and he stared at the woman _hard_ for a moment. But inevitably handed it over since he knew that nothing good would come of keeping it from her.

There was a reason why Pepper hung out with the lot of them. Himself, Tony, and Happy- and part of the reason had a lot to do with the fact that the woman was damned scary. That and she could put the frigging fear of god into the lot of them.

Tony especially tended to babble about her god awful temper and her _sharp_ pointy heels. Probably because she's actually used them to threaten to do bodily harm to the man a few times over the years.

"Don't have a nervous breakdown like Happy once you read it. We've only got room in the compound for _one_ possible alcoholic to plan an intervention for." He said warningly as he slid the file across the table.

She grabbed it and scooched down in her seat a little bit and then flipped it open as Rhodey grabbed his drink and took a swallow or two.

He had a feeling that it was going to be a terribly long night. And to be perfectly honest, he wasn't looking that forward to whatever else Ichigo's files held inside of them.

* * *

Rhodey wasn't sure what time it had been when he'd actually conked out. Much less was even aware of the fact that he'd conked out at all.

All he knew when he opened his eyes was that his face was covered in paper, drool, and was lying on the table where he'd spent most of the night reading Tony's little girl's files. And _holy-Jesus-fuck_ did the kid have a frigging record! He remembered actually cringing time and time again as he read her military file, as well as her health and psych files.

Honestly, he didn't know how a twelve year old, barely trained kid managed to get herself into such impossible situations. Much less get herself out of them without dying.

But he was betting that it had something to do with _Tony's_ genetics.

Especially since he had known the man long enough to actually start to blame his genetics for being specifically hardwired towards trouble. In fact, he'd been Tony's friend long enough to see a freakishly _frightening_ trend.

It was like everyone carrying his friend's DNA was mentally and physically geared towards cluster fuck situations. Getting themselves into them. And getting themselves out of them only to land themselves in even worse situations. The vicious cycle kept continuing no matter how hard he tried to prevent/stop it.

It just went on over, and over, and _over_ again.

Lifting his head a little bit to blink his sleep blurry eyes, he gradually became more and more aware of the fact that Pepper was cussing like a sailor while Happy huddled on the couch watching the woman with avid interest.

"Happy?" He rasped, causing the man to turn his head and wave at him before turning back to Pepper just in time for her to tear her ear bud out of her ear and snarl, loudly.

" _No!_ Fuck you!" And then throw the piece down on the floor and then stomp on it and break it underneath her heel. The second that she was done doing that. she lifted her head and looked around almost as if she were in a daze and caught his eye, and blushed a little bit because of his expression.

"Good morning Rhodey." She said in an overly chipper tone that didn't bode well for him _or_ Happy.

"Mornin, Pep." Rhodey muttered as she briskly walked by him and into the kitchen where she grabbed a plate of food and a cup of coffee and then walked back to him and set it in front of him as he asked warily, "It isn't poisoned is it?"

"What a thing to say to the person who slaved over a stove while cussing out the Prime Minister of Japan." She said a little bit too jovially as he decided to try taking a sip of the coffee and promptly wound up choking on it upon hearing her words about the Prime Minister.

Finally he managed to get past the searing pain in his mouth and throat enough to rasp out, "What?" In a slightly alarmed tone as the woman gave him a very shark like smile and simply said.

"The coffee and food for your silence, Rhodey."

He eyed both items and wondered if letting her cuss out the Prime Minister of Japan was even worth it. God knew that anything that she did or said to the man could maybe be traced back to them and cause them a whole mess of trouble. However one look at her face told him to take the deal.

Food and coffee for his silence. He saw nothing and most especially- he _heard_ nothing. She knew that she had him the second he pulled both the plate and the cup close to him and hunched over it like he was hoarding it.

"Good man." She said in a happy tone as she leaned down to kiss his cheek.

He grunted and muttered, "None of what you do better be traced back to us or Happy will throw you under the bus."

Across the room they both heard Happy yell in an almost panicked tone, "The hell I will! My loyalty for my life! I'm not dying at _her_ hands!"

Pepper smiled at the less than manly admission, only furthering Rhodey's impression that she had to be a devil as he asked, "Anyone seen the kid yet?"

There was a little chorus of, "No" and "Nope" from the two as he decided to try taking another drink of his coffee before asking, "What time is it?"

"Close to eight thirty." Happy replied absently.

Rhodey hummed. "She should be up soon then."


	5. Chapter 5

It was an hour later when Ichigo finally showed up. And by then Rhodey had eaten, and had several cups of coffee. Happy had gone to his room to grab a shower and shave. And Pepper had just gotten off the phone with the _Emperor of Japan,_ whom she'd been screaming at for a good hour in a half for how his military people conducted themselves.

Rhodey had heard at least a bit of both sides of the screaming match going on and the man seemed genuinely puzzled about why he was getting screamed at. Which was... _strange_ to say the least.

However the moment that Ichigo entered the room, it became a distant concern.

"Hey girly," Rhodey called out. "Get enough beauty sleep?"

The girl shot him an amused look, but didn't say anything. As Pepper literally ran over to her and flung her arms around her neck and started to hug her and look her over as if she'd just come back from a really, really long trip. Rhodey sighed as Pepper circled around the kid and absently ran a hand along various parts of her body.

Like her more than _slightly_ nerved damaged arm. Her viciously scarred shoulder. The place on one of her hands where several of her fingers had been cut off- but later, reattached. The small puckered little bit of skin that ran along the nape of her neck where an enhanced- that's right, the file may not have come right out and said anything outright. But Rhodey knew enough about the abilities of some _enhanced_ individuals to be able to read between the lines, and know that the kid had been 'drafted' to fight against them- _tried_ to remove her head from her shoulders.

Ichigo didn't move or try to stop Pepper as she did this either.

In fact she didn't seem the least bit perturbed by it at all. Which was odd since most teenagers didn't overly appreciate an adult getting into their personal space for anything. Usually if an adult did what Pepper was currently doing to a kid- said kid would throw a world class hissy fit which would devolve into a shouting match.

Finally Pepper's exam seemed to be finished and she stepped back a little bit and asked, "Did you sleep alright sweetheart?"

"I slept fine." Ichigo replied.

Pepper smiled at her, "Good. Now you just need to eat something that then we'll be good to go for the day." Ichigo blinked at her, her expression barely changing at all as she waited for the woman to elaborate. "I've got you an appointment with the hair salon. They're going to trim, cut and restyle some the shagginess out of your hair. If it's dyed, then they'll reapply some color-"

"Do you think they could put a pretty darker blue color in my hair? Like highlights and maybe at the tips in the back?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"I'm sure that they can. Do you have an idea or two about what color blue?" Pepper asked as she pulled out her touch pad and began to make notes.

"It has to be something that would work on my hair since it's black."

"Alright, I'll let them know and they can pull some stuff out for you to choose from. They'll also give you a manicure and a facial too. Do you usually go without make-up?"

"All the time. I have a very strong _dislike_ of anything covering my face."

"Okay, that's...good I guess. I know that make-up isn't for everyone. And you're certainly pretty enough to go without it. But what about something small like lip gloss, lip stick or eye shadow? Would you be okay with those?"

Ichigo shrugged her shoulders. "As long as it isn't something with glitter or something equally annoying to take off- then it should be okay, I guess."

"Okay, what about nail polish color? Do you have any favorites?"

"I've never painted my nails before, so I wouldn't really know what I can tolerate or not." Ichigo said slowly. Pepper lifted her eyes to her and blinked. Her expression totally baffled.

She'd never heard of teenage girls going without the basics like nail polish before. But then it might have had _something_ to do with her former job. She couldn't imagine that the ones that the girl used to work with were all that keen on her being... _girly_. In fact she could very easily see how Ichigo's gender coupled with being girly and cutesy would be considered distracting to others.

Especially while they were working.

Naturally, this pissed the woman off all over again. However she had no time at the moment to call another Japanese government official up and cuss them out, _again_.

"No matter," She finally managed to say. "We'll figure everything out as we go. Now, after the salon we're going to go clothes shopping. We don't have to get a lot, just a few things for you to wear at press conferences and so on. Are you still planning to play the innocent school girl?"

"Yes." Ichigo said. Not bothering to lie or mince words. "I've also designed and sent an order in to a shop somewhere in the city for specific outfits to be made. Including some 'fake' school uniforms."

"Really?"

Ichigo nodded her head. "Yeah, I designed several with different colors- but I'm not sure which one would suit me better since it's technically both a prop and a work uniform for when I'm out."

"You're really going to try and sell the whole 'innocent little girl' thing, huh?" Rhodey asked.

"Can you blame me?"

" _Nope_. I'm actually looking forward to the entertainment." He said as he saluted her with his coffee cup.

"I'm looking forward to you playing Ross like a fiddle." Pepper said in a slightly menacing tone before she decided to throw in a very witch-like cackle that sent a shiver down both Ichigo and Rhodey's spines.

* * *

A while later, Ichigo found herself sitting across from Pepper in the back of a nice limo. Which was just a tad bit excessive in her opinion. Especially since she wasn't a very flashy person herself.

She disliked having attention on her because it made doing her job incredibly difficult. However she knew that everything directly linked to the name Tony Stark was usually both _expensive_ and _flashy_. It was simply what people knew him for the most. And being as she was the man's daughter- even if no one knew it- she would simply need to get used to it.

After all, she couldn't very well let people _talk_. And she didn't want to do anything that would create any bad press about him and everyone else.

Besides, she could find ways around the expensive and flashy lifestyle to be herself and do her job. It wasn't a big deal.

"Have you figured out what story you want to use when at the press conference?" Pepper asked suddenly, drawing her out of her thoughts.

Ichigo blinked and turned her head to look at the woman for a moment before replying, "As a matter of fact, I have."

"Alright, would you mind running it by me then- so that I can be prepared."

"Sure. I thought that I would keep it fairly simple. The story is that I'm his niece. My late mom was Tony's half sister. He knew about her and met her a couple of times before I was born and kept in touch even after she died."

"Ah, that could actually work." Pepper hummed with a thoughtful look. "After all, even I know that your DNA wouldn't totally match Tony's. That's actually really good. Especially since the fact that you have Tony's DNA at all can be proven and go uncontested by anyone."

Ichigo gave the woman a feral looking smile. _Now she's getting it._


	6. Chapter 6

Ichigo peeked out from behind the curtain at the sea of faces present for the conference and had to resist the actual urge to gulp as her nervousness spiked a little bit. She couldn't help but think that this was a bad idea.

Introducing her to the world as her biological father's heir would likely come with a _lot_ of backlash and repercussions from people who would protest his company, wealth, and everything else being left to a teenage.

Not that it mattered any, Pepper had already assured her several times that anyone that so much as _dared_ to offend her would not only face their small army of lawyers and a lot of frigging lawsuits. But would be permanently banned from any future press conferences as well.

Which would suck, obviously. But mostly since many of them had turned the Stark name into their bread and butter.

Huffing quietly, she moved away from the curtain to give herself another quick once over. Trying desperately to make sure that nothing was out of place. Her hair, her clothing, lip gloss- these vultures would literally pick her apart if even a strand of hair was out of place and she damned well knew it.

Luckily, she and Pepper had done a lot of careful and meticulous planning yesterday during their outing.

After all, if she was going to play the part of a school girl- then she had to put a lot of effort into the image. She decided to go with a image that ran somewhere along the lines of a 'girl next door' look. Which was fairly easy for her. It wasn't too difficult to pull off and didn't require her absolute concentration nor an excessive amount of energy.

Which was perfect since it also went hand in hand with the sort of 'innocence' that she was trying to project to the public. In short, she had to either decide to channel Rukia's personality _or_ Orihime's.

Orihime's came with far too many literal pitfalls. She doubted that she could pull off being a day dreaming air head quite like Hime could. And despite that being one of Hime's many wonderful charms, it would be simply too irritating to her.

It was one thing to be underestimated.

It was another entirely to be believed to be an outright idiot. Even she would have difficulty not breaking character so that she could throw something or someone out of a damned window in frustration. So...maybe she should try channeling Rukia's personality instead?

She was weirdly naïve about some things. So maybe her personality would work.

Making her way back to the small dressing room down the small hallway from the gathering, she slipped inside the room and automatically sought out the mirror hanging on the wall across from the door.

She and Pepper had had a frigging devil of a time looking for some clothing that would be adequate for this. Instead of a suit or special dress for her introduction to the world, she had decided to look for a very specific sort of clothing. An azure blue long sleeved sweater and a knee length black skirt with suspenders attached to it.

Her long dark hair had been cut and styled to look like it had before it had grown out. Which wasn't terrible. She still had her long mullet style. Which she was very happy about. However the stylist had taken four inches off of the length, re-layered her hair, and trimmed and fluffed her bangs. The blue highlights that she had wanted along with the blue tips in the back of her hair had been simple to do.

However as happy as she was with the style, today she had decided to do something a little bit different. Today, she had had her hair pulled back into a french braid that hung down her back.

She'd also added a nice, matching pretty blue ribbon barrette in her hair too.

On top of that, her bangs had hair clips with little rhinestones on them, pulling her bangs back from her face a little bit. Pepper had insisted that she wear some eye shadow- _pink_ \- the most feminine color in the world, of all things.

She'd taken a picture of herself earlier and sent it to Yuzu knowing that she was going to just die if she didn't have proof of Ichigo's 'girly' transformation. Naturally, both of her sisters had sent the picture to their dad. And then to Chad and Rukia whom then forwarded it to... _others_ whom-shall-not-be-named.

And now she was afraid to even bother to turn her phone on. Especially since Rangiku had been blowing it up with complaints about her not showing enough cleavage to manage to hook herself a rich sugar daddy.

Honestly, if she knew how to do it- she likely would have already tried to actually reach _through_ the phone and throttled the woman for daring to even make such comments to her.

After all, she had much better things to do with her time than troll for men like a trollop.

Sighing, she reached up to adjust the strand of pearls around her neck- trying to be careful with the delicate strand since it had once belonged to her late mother and was one of the few actual pieces of jewelry that she owned. Aside from the matching set of pearl earrings, a few diamond pieces, and a couple of other odds and ends anyways.

Once she finished adjusting the necklace, she dropped her arms back to her sides just in time for Happy to poke his head in. "Hey, Pepper is getting ready to introduce you now."

"Alright. Did she address Tony's disappearance?"

"Yeah. Come on, lets go. It's best not to leave her hanging." He said as he motioned for her to come with him. Steeling herself so that she wouldn't feel so obviously nervous while she was under everyone's scrutiny, she followed him out of the room and back towards the stage that had been set up just in time to hear Pepper say her name and turn towards where she was.

Ichigo quickly fixed her expression and walked out to join the woman. Careful to avoid flinching every time someone shouted her name or took a picture. The flashing lights alone were headache inducing.

Still, she smiled and walked over to Pepper whom after slipping an arm around her shoulders, leaned in just close enough to tell her that she was doing good and then pulled back and removed herself from the immediate area to go and hang out with Rhodey.

"Hello everyone." She greeted politely. A few of the people in the press muttered quiet greetings while others simply continued to film and take pictures. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki-" Anything else that she had been about to say was lost when she heard several people shouting her name at once.

"Miss Kurosaki! Miss Kurosaki!" Ichigo's attention was instantly given to several of the people jumping up and down in front of her, causing her to frown a little bit.

_What is with these people?_ Were they so desperate for a story that they couldn't remain still? She wondered as Pepper quickly moved to save her by telling everyone to settle down, that she would answer a few of their questions. They seemed to settle down a bit, but still held her attention.

She wouldn't swear to it- no that wasn't exactly right- she couldn't swear to it. Not...plausibly anyways. But at least three of the guys in front of her gave her a terrible feeling. Almost like the one that she got around Hollows.

There was simply something _creepy_ about them.

Pointing to one man, she allowed him to ask her a question. It was a small, typical curious one. How old are you, was a pretty typical question in the media whenever a child was involved. So she smiled and answered him and then moved on.

The next question was, What do you think of you're 'uncle'.

The answer to that was a little bit tricky given the fact that she couldn't ever recall meeting the man. But she didn't think that he was a _terrible_ person. In fact, he must be doing something right to have such good friends. So, yeah. Not terrible.

The next question was about the Accords. What did she think of them? She passed that question over with a promise to sit down with the reporter at some point for an in depth expose on her thoughts on the Accords. But at the moment, they simply didn't have the time.

The question after that was, What did she think of the former Avengers. Her response was swift. She didn't think anything of them. She didn't know them enough to judge.

What was going to happen to SI? Surely she had some ideas about what she was going to do with it since it was technically hers now.

She scrunched her nose up a little bit at the question before simply saying, "I'm not sure if you've noticed yet, but I'm still in school. And while I will be spending some time shadowing Miss Potts at the company to learn everything that I can. Most of my time will still be spent doing schoolwork. After all, no one will take me seriously without a _good_ education."

Several people chuckled.

The next question was, What will happen with the Avenger's initiative?

"The Avengers initiative will be rebuilt from the ground up. And I will also be looking for _new_ Avengers to take the former group's place. Those individuals will have to sign the Accords to be fully accepted. As well as undergo extensive background checks, and psych evaluations to make sure that no one is in any sort of mental distress. And the team will answer directly to myself and my appointed co-leader, Mr. Rhodes who obviously knows a great deal more about politics than I. Miss Potts will act as the Avenger's temporary liaison and adviser. And Mr. Hogan has been kind enough to sit down with me and Mr. Rhodes and help us put together new training programs."

There was some applause from some of the reporters indicating their approval of this decision. She smiled at them without taking her eyes off of the three that held her attention as she slipped an arm behind her back and signed to Rhodey, _There's possible hostiles in the front_.

* * *

He watched the video of the press conference from one partially swollen eye, his breath catching in his throat as he stared at her on the small TV. He didn't know how long exactly he'd been there. But his captors had made a grievous error in letting him see the conference that his daughter was attending.

God she was so big!

When had she gotten so tall? So grown up?

Had he really missed sixteen years of her precious life? He wondered as he saw Pepper move to usher the girl off stage. Taking a deep shuddering breath, he closed his eye for a moment and felt such a strong stirring of fierce _love_ - _protectiveness_ towards the angelic young lady that his little girl had become.

And though his captors didn't seem to know it yet...they had made a terrible mistake just now. They reminded him that he had people to return home too. And though it would take him a while to just be able to do anything, he could feel the familiar stirrings of _rage-wrath-death_ rising within him.


	7. Chapter 7

The thing about Ichigo's instincts- when it came to feeling... _vibes_ coming from people- is though she couldn't really explain what she was feeling in great detail to help the others understand. She was literally never _wrong_.

She had inherited a little bit of her late mother's psychic ability. And had it to thank for the instinctive intuition, that she'd been born with.

It had always served her well as an early warning system of sorts that had helped her to stay alive for many, many years. And probably would for many, many more to come.

So naturally, because she wasn't exactly sure how to explain what she was feeling to the others in a way that they would understand without giving herself away as 'enhanced' or 'super human', then she didn't bother to try.

Instead she simply told Rhodey and Happy that she felt something _off_ about the men that had caught her attention; that they had creeped her out. And then used her cell phone to contact Friday, because she wasn't all that sure that she wanted the others involved just to be safe, and asked her to scan the men's faces and begin to check them against criminal records and such.

The A.I. had assured her that she would be quick about it and let her know if she found anything.

After that, she disappeared from the building under the pretense of 'needing air'. Which was a slightly difficult task with Happy following her since he'd been charged with the task of being her bodyguard. But she still managed anyways.

Much to the poor man's utter bafflement. She supposed that watching her was a lot like watching a really good magician. One second she was there and the next...she wasn't.

Right now she was watching him from the flag pole fifteen stories up from the ground as he ran back and forth and checked the alley ways and such for any trace of her.

She could hear him screaming and cursing every few breaths and since the press conference was ending, he had to immediately, and carefully reign himself in a little bit. Otherwise he'd make a spectacle of himself that _would_ wind up on the evening news.

Right after the report on her. And Pepper would _not_ be pleased with either of them.

Come to think of it, Rhodey probably wouldn't be either. But if she was going to do something about those men she needed to be able to do it as _stealthily_ as possible.

She supposed that setting them up to try something would be the best way to confirm that they were up to no good. However using herself as bait made her feel a little bit...exposed. Oh sure, she didn't mind acting as bait. God knew that she'd certainly done it a number of times before.

Still... The main question now was, how to go about it?

She needed to be incredibly _careful_ with how she proceeded, especially out in the open like this. The building that the conference had been held out may be privately owned by SI. But it was also out in the open due to the fact that they were in an very active part of the city. As it already was, she was lucky not to have accidentally exposed herself when she had moved from the streets to her current position.

Luckily for her, she excelled at moving faster than fast.

Besides, she couldn't be irresponsible or reckless here. Doing so would reflect badly on SI and everyone helping her. Not only that, but the backlash would be stupendous. Especially if she landed herself in jail or court.

Feeling her cell phone vibrate in her hand, she blinked and quickly flicked it open. Friday had found something after all. She wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or upset about that. So she didn't bother to feel anything at all as she quickly read the information that the A.I. had just sent to her.

The facial recognition software in the A.I.'s system had not only figured out the men's names, and their criminal records. But the organization that they were _known_ to be affiliated with.

**_Hydra_.**

_The Nazi organization?_ She wondered, feeling just a little bit startled.

Narrowing her eyes a little bit at the very thorough report that Friday had sent to her phone, she also noted that the men had been missing since the fall of Shield and had managed to keep from being apprehended. They were violent. And probably carrying weapons on them too.

It was likely that they had posed as reporters to see what was up with one of the worlds most popular tech companies, and perhaps even been looking for something or someone to exploit. For money or something else, she couldn't hazard a guess.

But she'd bet it was either one.

And of course, at the bottom of Friday's report was also a warning from the A.I, _I've sent this same report to the others and contacted the proper authorities. Don't. Do. Anything. Rash._

She read, and then re read the same words three times before finally huffing in irritation. "Nobody likes a tattle tail Friday." She muttered to herself despite the fact that the A.I. couldn't hear her.

* * *

By the time she managed to get down from the flag pole and duck into an alley, so that she could be found, Happy had already gone back inside the building to grab Rhodey and Pepper to help him look for her. The three were back outside a moment or so later, amongst the rest of the people from the conference, looking somewhat _alarmed_ at her disappearance.

She wasn't sure if they were truly alarmed, or if maybe they were somewhat concerned that maybe the Hydra guys might have grabbed her. Either way, she wasn't going to leave them in suspense.

Especially since the longer that they stayed at their present location, the more easy it would be for the baddies to try and take them all out. After all, it would be a fairly simple thing to shoot them and make it look like some random attack. Unless they were wanting a hostage.

Stepping out of the alley where she'd been 'hiding' for the moment, she was nearly knocked off of her feet when Happy ran over to her and literally almost tackled her to the ground in his haste to try and check her over for any injuries.

She let out an indignant squawk as the man basically looked her over, and then hog tied her and tossed her over his shoulder and immediately hauled ass for the car.


	8. Chapter 8

Needless to say, Rhodey and Pepper took turns chastising her for 'disappearing' on Happy during the ride back to the compound. Which wasn't terrible. After all, it was no less than she expected. However she got rather pissed later that evening after seeing the confrontation between the _dumbasses-who-needed-their-asses-kicked_ and the local authorities, which resulted in the deaths of ten people.

Eight civilians. And _two_ police officers.

So to say that she was immensely displeased would be an understatement. She was so pissed that she literally had to leave the common room and lock herself in her own room to stew a bit.

She knew that the others were worried about her, not long after she had locked herself away, because the three had taken turns trying to coax her out to talk to them. But she wasn't really very good company at the moment. So she simply stayed put after at least letting the three adults know that she was alright.

She'd be back to herself in the morning. Or at least, as close to back to herself as she could get without scaring the hell out of anyone anyways.

She didn't sleep very well that night. In fact she spent a majority of her night tossing and turning and having nightmares about blood. Rivers of it so damned deep that she woke up repeatedly feeling as if she couldn't _breathe._ So after about four hours, and three tries to get some actual rest- she threw in the towel, got pissed all over again and then decided to do something productive until the others were up.

She grabbed her new laptop- the one that Friday had managed to download a few _helpful_ programs onto- and with Friday helping her yet again. She used it to get the license plate number of the vehicle that the Nazi guys had used, and began to use some of her new software to _track_ their dumb asses down.

She'd be damned if they were going to go on with their lives when she could stop them. They were going to stand trial for their sins and if she had anything to say about it- they'd die _screaming_ for mercy.

She must have worked on this task for _hours_.

After all, it had barely been two thirty am when she'd decided to finally get up. So naturally, when she finally noticed the morning sun filtering through her curtainless window, she decided to re join the land of the living and go about her routine.

And it was a good thing that she had decided to stop too- especially since an uninvited guest had decided to drop by unannounced.

* * *

Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy barely slept more than a couple of hours last night because they were worried about the kid. Causing the trio to get up far earlier than any of them were usually inclined to.

And since they were up earlier than usual, they had all gone about their usual morning routine. Showered/shaved, dressed and then migrated to the common room for coffee and a early breakfast. After which, they had just sat around and talked about what the presence of the Hydra goons at the press conference meant.

And _how_ exactly Ichigo had managed to make them when Hydra operatives were not only highly trained but particularly good at infiltration and information gathering.

They had been in the midst of speculating whether or not it was a possibility that she may have run into them before. During her early years as a soldier. And frankly...the mere idea that she may have had to go up against Hydra, even in a professional sense damned near sent all three of them into simultaneous screaming fits of rage.

However they had to quickly reign in their tempers when Friday suddenly chimed in and told them that Ichigo was awake. She had been for a few hours. Though she didn't go into any details as to why.

Oh and General Ross had just pulled up in his state car and was _demanding_ unauthorized entrance to the compound.

The second that Friday mentioned the puffed up peacock, Pepper's skin started to light up along her veins, the glow working it's way up to her face as her eyes turned fiery red-orange. The light was a remnant of the Extremis that she had been injected with a few years back after she'd been kidnapped by some guy named Aldrich Killian.

The same guy that had nearly killed Happy when one of his flunkies had exploded, catching the man in one of the blasts.

"What is that bastard doing here?" Happy growled. His tone laced with more anger than Rhodey had heard from him in a good long while.

"He's probably here to disprove that Ichigo is actually Tony's heir." Pepper almost spat as the glow began to gradually fade from her skin and eyes. "After all, she's literally all that stands between him and the government from seizing everything in Tony's possession thanks to those damned Accords laws."

"To be fair, Tony probably never thought that the Counsil would turn that particular 'law' against him via majority rules." Rhodey muttered underneath his breath.

"Maybe," Pepper muttered with a frown before then saying. "Or, he simply didn't realize what total _dicks_ a majority of the Council are."

"So what do we do? Let him in and let him throw a fit and start threatening us? Threatening Ichigo?"

"If he so much as breathes in her direction the wrong way, I'm knocking him out. Happy-" The man jumped a little bit at the sharpness of Peppers tone but gave the woman his total and undivided attention anyways. "Once he's down you'll plant a knife on him." Both Rhodey and Happy looked at her in utter bewilderment for a moment before Happy let out a loud whoop and make an automatic beeline for the kitchen. _"Friday!"_

"Yes Supreme Leader?" The A.I. chimed.

"You'll doctor the footage on the security cameras and then leak them video to every news station in the country!"

"Oh my god-" Rhodey groaned as he hid his face in his hands. He knew that he should stop them, really he did. But the idea of Ichigo being exposed to Ross right now was just... _vexing_ in the extreme. And yes- technically speaking- Pepper's idea was just plain brilliant, wonderful, and also everything utterly terrible. However before he could come up with a new plan to deal with the insane general, Ichigo entered the common room and made an automatic beeline for the kitchen.

She nodded to him and Pepper as she passed by them and poor Happy almost jumped out of his skin when she came up behind him and saw him rooting around for a nice, sharp steak knife or something.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she grabbed a mug from the cabinet above the man's head and went about pouring and fixing her coffee how she liked it.

It was a good thing that the kitchen was so incredibly well stocked. If she'd found out that they were out of caramel flavored cream- she likely would have tossed the coffee maker out the nearest window in frustration.

Which would have raised some uncomfortable questions from the adults present in the room since the windows in the compound were likely bullet proof and damned near unbreakable by _normal_ means.

Luckily for everyone- and the coffee machine too- they did have her favorite caramel flavored cream. Which she used about half of before finally closing the container and putting it back in place and then took a moment to stir the drink before tasting it.

"I'm looking for a decently sharp knife." Happy said as Rhodey called out to them both.

"Heads up! Ross is in the compound and heading our way!"

"Who's Ross?" Ichigo asked Happy curiously as she took another drink.

"The head jackwang that likes to come by unannounced and threaten to take everything that Tony's worked his whole adult life for." Happy said angrily.

Ichigo hummed and set her coffee down for a moment and then leaned over and deftly grabbed a knife out of the drawer he had been rummaging around in and then simply waited until she heard the gradually nearing sound of heels clicking on the tiled floor outside the common room.

Tracking the sound because she had to time her little display of temper carefully. She waited until the man- Ross- was about to enter the room and then quickly jumped over the island separating the kitchen from the rest of the room and ran up to Pepper and Rhodey and winked at them both as she shifted her hold on the knife that she'd grabbed as she said, "Pepper! Rhodey! See what my dad taught me!"

And then as the man was entering the room, wound her arm back and then let it fly.

The whole room went utterly silent. There wasn't any yelling, screaming, or shouting in alarm. No questions demanding answers. The three adults simply stood there in a mixture of sadistic glee and utter horrified shock as the knife flew true and impaled the wall dangerously close to Rosses temple, not only starling the elderly man badly, but scaring him just enough to make him piss himself.


	9. Chapter 9

Needless to say, Ross screamed at all of them for nearly letting him die. However Ichigo managed to shut him up rather quickly when she took a picture of him- wet pants- and all and decided to use the threat of posting it on the internet to get him to stop screaming at them.

After which the man simply snarled at the girl and stomped his way into the common room and seated himself- as if he _owned_ the place- on one of the chairs. Uncomfortably wet pissy pants and all where he then took up glaring at Ichigo and grinding his teeth.

Ichigo merely smiled at him innocently and then walked back to the kitchen to grab her coffee as the man demanded that someone in the accursed place bring him a damned drink. Something strong, alcoholic and preferably _expensive_.

After all, he'd very nearly died. So obviously he felt that he was entitled to special treatment.

Of course Ichigo put a stop to that immediately by, grabbing Happy's arm and pulled him to a stop before he could go in search of the man's 'drink' and stated very firmly- and not the least bit _nicely_ either- in fact she was downright rude when she spoke to the man.

Pointing out that he was a _trespasser_ in their home.

And when he opened his mouth to say anything else snide to her guardian or the others. She then said that he would get absolutely _no_ special treatment or any sympathy from a single one of them when he didn't have the common sense to call and ask if he could come over, before simply showing up and so rudely expecting them to accommodate him.

She then went on to brazenly tell the man that his mother obviously failed to teach him _any_ manners at all and it was a wonder someone hadn't shot him or had him arrested for breaking and entering already.

Ross stared at the girl for a moment with a stupefied expression on his face. After all, it wasn't all that often that someone would dare to speak to him like that.

Rhodey had to admit, he didn't think that he'd live to see the day where someone would snark back at the man. But Ichigo didn't seem like the type of girl to take shit.

Still as entertaining as this was. It could still very well come back to bite all of them. After all, Ross was insane and definitely not the kind of person that anyone wanted to tangle with.

However the fact that Ichigo seemed to handle the man- well, reduce him to a speechless state, more like- was _fascinating_. And not just to him either. Pepper and Happy had decided to move in for a front row seat to the clash of wills between the two and were seated on the chair next to the coffee table eyeing the two somewhat curiously/warily.

Both anxiously waiting for the next verbal bought between the two.

Finally when it came, it came in the form of an angry snarl from the elder. "You speak to your mother with that mouth?"

"My mom is dead."

Ross snorted. "No wonder you have no respect for your betters."

"Respect is _earned_ , not given you insufferable lack wit." She snapped automatically watching as his eyes widened a little bit and he had to resist the urge to let his jaw drop open in dismay.

The general couldn't believe that this little brat was talking to him in such an outrageous manner! People respected him! Feared him! He'd be damned if this little girl didn't as well.

"You aren't better than me. In fact you're rather childish for an adult. Throwing temper tantrums and making demands as if you have any right to do so. Such disrespect should have been beaten out of you when you were young man! When in our home, you will act accordingly or I will slap the _bitch_ right out of you until you learn to treat others with respect."

"Are you threatening me you little bitch?!" Ross shouted at her, spittle flying from his mouth as he slowly stood up and took a threatening step towards the her. Trying to intimidate her into apologizing or something.

However Ichigo didn't seem to care for his tactics. She looked him dead in the eye, crossed her arms and stared him down as if he were a bug that she were just waiting to crush.

Rhodey's hackles raised a bit and he started to move to stand between the two, worried that the general might actually try to strike the teen for smarting off to him. He used to hear stories from Bruce about how the man tended to treat young girls.

Of how he used to beat the hell out of his late wife and daughter finally had to run away just to escape his brutality.

"It's not a threat. It's a promise." Ichigo said calmly, her eyes staring coldly at him even as he crowded her and looked like he was about to raise his hand to her.

Pepper and Happy both tensed up, both of them knowing that if Ross dared to hit Ichigo in front of any of them- jail would be the least of the man's concerns. He would be lucky not to be torn to _shreds_ by the three of them since they already felt rather protective of the teen.

"Better people than you have tried, you little cunt. So I dare you-"

"Say that again." Ichigo said as she tilted her head to the side a little bit.

"Which part? The part where I called you a little cunt? Or the part where I dared you to try?" Ross snarled in her face. There was no change in Ichigo's expression, no flicker of anger. No nothing.

Which was perhaps the only warning that Ross got, but didn't care to pay any attention to.

The girl merely sighed and looked at the three of them with no expression on her face for a moment and then shrugged and before anyone could react at all. There was the sickening sound of flesh meeting flesh, Ross crying out, a spray of blood, and then he went down like a ton of bricks.

"Holy shit!" Happy shouted as he literally climbed over the back of the chair he'd been sitting in with Pepper. The red headed woman looked particularly happy and Rhodey simply gaped at the kid.

Honestly he didn't know what to _do_.

So he just stood there in state of disbelief as Ichigo quickly stepped up to the man lying on the floor bleeding and snarled, "That's strike one," And then looked at Happy and said, "Plant a knife on him. Friday, doctor the video feed to make it look like he attacked one of us and leak it to the press and the Accord's Council. Once that's done- take the bastard out and dump him at a hospital somewhere. Leave him outside like the trash he is." And then she spun on her heel and walked away.

Pepper was the one to whoop this time before vaulting over the back of her chair and nearly knocking Happy over in her haste to get to the kitchen.

Rhodey couldn't help but note just how fast the woman seemed to move in those frighteningly sharp heels of hers. Honestly, at this point, he wasn't sure who to be more afraid of. The red head or the kid.

Both were terrifying in their own ways. But right now he was leaning more towards being scared of Ichigo. She seemed to have much less remorse towards the damage she'd already done today.

Either way, he'd need to keep a closer eye on her otherwise there would be total hell to pay once Tony was home. Though he suspected that his long time friend would have absolutely _loved_ to see Ross get KO'ed by a girl. God knew that Tony had certainly wanted to hit the man himself a time or two.


	10. Chapter 10

Wakanda-

T'Challa wouldn't admit it aloud, because- ya know, it was sort of _wrong_ to spy on Tony Stark's home and those in it. Wrong. But deemed totally necessary if only to be absolutely certain that the man wasn't looking in his country for the 'rogue' Avengers.

So far, it had been nearly a month since the falling out of the Avengers and things had been completely quiet on Starks end. Until he and the ex-Avengers had sat down together and watched the press conference that was aired world wide anyways.

Finding out that Stark had disappeared and no one knew where he was. Was... _disturbing_ to the king for obvious reasons. After all, he had claimed the man as an ally. And finding out that he was missing- now, after the falling out between himself and the rogue's- could mean something very terrible had happened.

It meant that he could have been grabbed by someone. A remnant of Hydra maybe? Or even general Ross himself.

Or even worse, he could be dead. Which was a particularly bitter pill for the king to swallow since it dealt his ego a blow.

But to find out that the man had an heir to his empire was _shocking_. Even more so to find out that his heir was a sixteen year old girl whom was actually not just some random kid picked up from the streets of desperation by his friends, but his own blooded _niece._

One that Stark had hidden any information on from the world as a collective whole.

To say that he was upset that such an integral detail about Stark's life had been kept from him- especially since the 'Civil War' had happened. And worrying about just how Stark's disappearance- as well as the stress of taking on the monumental task of everything else could possibly be effecting the young girl- was an understatement.

Of course he wasn't the only one at present that was upset.

Though he wasn't sure what the ex-Avengers were more upset about. Stark's disappearance? Or the fact that the man had hidden the fact that he _had_ blood kin from the people that he had called his friends?

Perhaps it was a little bit of both since both Steve and Barnes looked particularly guilty as the press conference progressed and the girl answered each question she was asked with a perturbing sort of ease.

But of course, the rollercoaster ride that was the new development in everything Stark related got considerably worse when the media confirmed that three Hydra agents- that's right- three of their _enemies_ had been present at the press conference. They had stood well within reaching range of Stark's niece.

Had looked at her. Breathed her air...

Needless to say, Steve nearly had a stroke right then and there. He was so furious that if it wouldn't have put them all in very serious danger- he would have gone back to the U.S. to kick some Hydra ass for _daring_ to get close to his friends only living family.

Barnes wasn't much better. In fact his expression went from curious about the girl to utterly closed off to ruthlessly calculating in an instant once he heard the report on the Hydra agents.

Natasha looked...like herself. Though at the moment she seemed to be having a silent conversation with Clint whom was clenching his teeth, his blue eyes icy with _rage_.

Even T'Challa knew that there was literally nothing that the two former assassin's would love more than to spatter the three agents brain matter all over the walls for getting so damned close to a child.

Sam looked more than a little bit pissed about the Hydra development too. Though he seemed able to hide it fairly well.

Needless to say, T'Challa had to stop several of the ex-Avengers, and even more significantly- Barnes- from leaving the country to do something stupid a few hours later.

The next day was only a little bit better.

But only because he had agreed with Steve to let Shirai hack the video surveillance at the compound so that they could check in on everyone there. Which seemed to pacify _some_ of them. Though Barnes didn't seem pacified by this compromise in the least.

He was riled and pacing around restless like a caged animal dying for a taste of fresh blood. And his behavior only got marginally worse. Especially when Ross showed up.

Of course it sort of threw them all for a loop when the girl nearly took the man out with a knife.

The startled sounding hysterical laughter from Clint when the general pissed himself, made T'Challa look at the man as if he were deranged. Though his own lips twitched in amusement despite himself.

Both Nat and Barnes looked more than a little bit impressed by the girl's knife throwing accuracy given the fact that kitchen knives don't have particularly good balance to them and simply aren't made to be thrown.

After that, Ross seemed to engage in a verbal match with the girl. Which earned him all sorts of dark looks from everyone watching the exchange. And then at some point Ross rose from his seat and crowded around the girl in an effort to try and intimidate her.

And the verbal match inevitably ended with the girl laying the general out on the floor where she then walked off and left him bleeding.

After breaking his nose, and knocking out three of the man's teeth and rendering him unconscious.

T'Challa couldn't help himself this time. His composure slipped and he let out an embarrassingly hysterical sounding laugh, himself. Causing everyone to look at him as he tried to sober up. Merely saying in a slightly defensive tone, " _What?_ The man is unpleasant."

"Amen to that." Clint muttered, his icy blue eyes softening considerably as they watched the girl give the order to the others for someone to plant a knife on the unconscious man and leak a 'fake' story to the press before walking away.

"I think I'm in love." Nat said. Her curiosity piqued by the teens lack of hesitation when she had thrown the kitchen knife, and by her total lack of remorse when she had KO'd Ross.

"Get in line sister." Sam said, half jokingly.

"I've never seen a kid react to someone like that." Steve said with a frown.

"I have. That's one of those don't-bully-me-or-I'll-kick-your-ass reactions," Bucky said. Steve looked at him for a moment as the man shrugged before elaborating a bit. "I sort of recall you having reactions like that when you felt bullied."

"She must have hell of a temper." Clint said.

"Temper nothing," Nat said with a small frown before pointing to the TV screen. "Look how she carries herself. How she moves. Remind any of you of anything?" She asked as she looked towards Clint.

Both Bucky and Steve automatically snapped to attention at the question and looked back at the TV screen. Their keen eyes searching for whatever Nat must have seen. Clint joined them, and it took him barely two minutes before his thoughtful expression shifted and he took a step back away from the other two with a look of shocked disbelief on his face.

It was subtle. So much so that very, very _few_ people would even notice what they were seeing in the first place. Which was simply a testament to just how well she seemed to have been trained. But it was there nevertheless and it was... _disturbing_ to see. Especially in someone who was kin to Tony.

"What is it?" Steve and Sam asked in unison. However instead of answering them, Clint gnashed his teeth angrily and then spun around and briskly walked out of the room. Leaving Bucky to answer the question.

"She's been trained as an assassin."


	11. Chapter 11

Aside from the smear campaign that Ross seemed to have launched after his first encounter with Ichigo, things were fairly quiet. Freakishly so. Which wasn't bad or anything.

At least not in Rhodey's opinion.

Pepper managed to push back taking Ichigo to SI and beginning her hands on training to run the place for a little while. Which was also good since the few days after first arriving at the compound seemed to totally _exhaust_ the kid. And yes- while jet lag could be a bitch- it didn't explain exactly what the kid was up too behind closed doors.

In fact Rhodey was kind of freaking out because he thought that maybe the kid was _avoiding_ them.

And they _did_ tend to get curious when they didn't see her for a few days at a time. So they occasionally had to use Friday to spy on her and see what she was up to when she refused to come out of her room after a little bit. But aside from that, everything was fairly calm and uneventful.

Ichigo tended to keep to herself.

It was one of the first things about her as a kid that the three adults noticed. The second thing that they noticed was several days after Rosses visit. Ichigo had been weirdly absent for two or so days.

Keeping in contact only to have Friday ask them specific questions about specific things. Some of which was stuff that she didn't _need_ to know- mostly because she was a teenager. And they simply felt that they should _protect_ her from some of those things since they could be particularly dangerous or even damaging.

At least in their opinion anyways.

It wasn't lost on any of them that the girl was carefully collecting intel. Checking to see what _would_ be allowed and what she should be careful to _avoid_ to keep from causing them any trouble.

Which was pretty smart since most kids would simply assume and get their asses into trouble of epic cluster fuck proportions.

So maybe it shouldn't have been quite as surprising as it was when they found out that she had been keeping herself busy since Rosses visit. Not to avoid them like they might have originally thought.

But because she was actually, _legitimately_ busy.

Nearly a week after secluding herself, the kid finally decided to finally come out of her room. And she brought _goodies_ for them when she did. And not just any goodies. But goodies that came in the form of information on the location of the Hydra agents from the press conference, and a newly written draft for the Accords, complete with amendments.

Walking into the common room, she walked right over to the couch and promptly flopped herself down onto it, next to Rhodey, with an exhausted sigh.

"You okay kid?" He asked as he took a moment to look her over.

Ichigo looked like she hadn't slept in _days_. She had dark circles underneath her eyes, and her face was paler than usual. How many days she'd gone without rest he couldn't be sure. But he was guessing that it had to be about four.

"I'm fine." Ichigo said as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes before asking. "What have you and the other's been up too?"

"Hm, this and that. Pepper's at work at the moment-" She raised her hand to stop him from talking for a moment and waited for him to pause before saying,

"Friday, could you please email the new Accords documents that I've been working on to Pepper. And add a note to please have the legal department look them over."

"Of course little boss."

"Thank you," Ichigo said as she dropped her hand and then looked at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. And also- do you know who I should send information on Hydra's goons to? To have them apprehended?"

Rhodey's first impulse was to tell her that it was okay, she hadn't hurt anything when she interrupted him. However the second that his mind registered her second question, his jaw opened, closed, and then he simply asked, _"What?"_ Hoping that he hadn't heard her right.

"Hydra goons. I have their location. Who do I give the information too? CIA, FBI- someone else?"

"I- You- When?" He stammered out.

"The day of the press conference. I started tracking them through various street camera's. I ran the car's license plate and I even managed to hack into a few systems so that I could keep my eye on them..." She said tiredly before frowning for a moment at his shocked expression and then tacking on hesitantly, "Friday helped too."

"No one likes a tattle tail, little boss." Friday chimed in. Her voice echoing with amusement.

Ichigo actually cringed a little bit and then said, "Yeah well, I figure that if I go down- I might as well drag you along with me." Friday didn't laugh. It was literally impossible in this stage of her development. But her voice pretty much sounded like if she could- she would have been cracking up right about then.

And Rhodey couldn't help but appreciate this fact immensely since Tony's robots/A.I.'s were literally like the man's kids. Having the trust and friendship of a one of Tony's 'kids' was like having your own minions.

Rhodey had rarely seen anything more awesome than what he was seeing right now. Well, aside from the time that Jarvis flat out _refused_ to be Pepper's partner in world domination, that is.

Though that had been pretty damned funny in itself.

But he digressed.

"You aren't in trouble, Ichigo. It's just...you sort of startled me with the," He waved a hand as the girl looked at him. Her exhaustion growing by the moment. She'd be asleep within an hour if he'd just shut his mouth. However he couldn't quite get his brain to comply at the moment. "Hydra stuff."

She hummed and closed her eyes again as he slowly started to settle back down in his seat and said, "Friday, send the information on the Hydra agents to the FBI."

"Of course, Rhodey." Friday said, her tone gentle before she then pointed out, "I think little boss has finally managed to doze off."

Rhodey grunted and cast the kid a quick look before asking, "How long has she been up working?"

"Since the day that Ross visited."

"So..about a week then."

"More or less."

"Has she eaten anything?"

"Yes. Off and on."

"When was the last time that she ate?"

"Several hours ago. She had a sandwich."

"Alright, then. I'll..just let her sleep."

"Alright."


	12. Chapter 12

Ichigo managed to sleep on the couch for a solid five hours. Giving Pepper and Happy enough time to return from their work for the day before she finally woke up.

Which was both nice and a little bit weird since she woke up just in time to zombie-shuffle herself over to the dinner table and flop down in a chair and make herself a plate of food and then spent a good hour in a half alternating between nodding off and eating it.

Happy found it hilariously funny. Pepper found it a little bit funny/concerning. And even at one point _took_ Ichigo's plate away from her before she could doze off again and face plant in it.

And Rhodey- well, all he could manage to do was snigger and shake his head as he watched the kid. He sat there the whole time thinking, _Wow, that's all Tony right there._ After all, how many times over the years had he _seen_ Tony work himself into the ground and do the same exact stuff? Zombie-shuffle and all.

Honestly, in those moments the resemblance between his best friend and the kid were _beyond_ uncanny.

He'd been wondering up till now if they even had the right kid. He simply hadn't said anything because if he had Pepper would have maimed him.

Everyone knew that the Supreme Ruler didn't make mistakes after all. Mistakes were for normal people like himself. Still...

Even so, Ichigo seemed...pretty damned put together for just a sixteen year old girl. Especially given the fact that she had a _confirmed_ former military career where she'd not only seen actual combat but killed people too.

Didn't soldiers who fought some really bad battles tend to have PTSD and stuff?

He kept wondering if maybe they should have Friday monitor her at night to see if she woke up from night terrors and stuff. For safety's sake. That way if the girl needed a good therapist- or even a whole slew of them like her dad usually did- then they could take care of that.

After all, the last thing that he wanted was for the girl to suffer a decline in her sanity or even struggle with PTSD and mental illness like Tony sometimes did. His friend would never forgive him if he left his little girl to _suffer_ alone and without the proper medical care.

"Ichigo. Hon, do you think that you can make up your mind between whether you want sleep or food?" Pepper asked in amusement as the kid literally face planted on the table, snorted, and did a funny full body twitch that Rhodey liked to call the 'meth' twitch.

Tony did _that_ pretty often too. Though it had been a while since he'd seen someone face plant onto the table quite as hard as Ichigo's just had- and _not_ wake up or even stir immediately afterward.

"No." The kid said as she turned her head to the side and gave Pepper a sleepy one eyed look from under her bangs for a moment as her hand reached out across the table to her dinner plate and hooked a finger on it and slowly began to drag it back towards her.

Totally ignoring the fact that Pepper tried to stop her by smacking the back of her hand before letting out a frustrated growl and letting the kid have it back.

Happy and Rhodey both snorted in quiet laughter as Ichigo slid her plate close to her head and then moved it ever so slightly to rest her chin on the edge of it in an undignified manner and started to finger feed herself. _Slowly._

Even he could tell by now that the kid was deliberately antagonizing Pepper by her actions. Which was shocking to him since people generally went out of their way in an attempt _not_ to antagonize the woman. But if the woman realized what the girl was doing, she didn't show it any. Nor did she rise to the bait any either.

Instead she simply rolled her eyes at the girl but laughed softly anyways when Ichigo accidentally missed her mouth and wound up smearing mashed potato's on her face when her eyes drifted closed again and stayed closed this time.

She stayed like that even after dinner ended and Pepper managed to wrestle the plate away from her again _without_ spilling anything or dropping it.

* * *

Despite having been left to sleep at the table all night, Ichigo didn't seem the least bit bothered at all by any soreness/stiffness in her neck, shoulders, or back.

In fact after managing to pop them all rather painfully loud- causing himself and Happy to literally cringe- at the sound of her bones popping...she seemed to be good to go for the day. And had meandered off to take a shower before she even bothered with anything remotely breakfast related.

Once she was done, and dressed- she returned to the common room to re seat herself in the chair that she'd slept in and asked Pepper, "What's on my agenda today?"

Pepper picked up the Stark phone that she always kept on her and looked up Ichigo's schedule to check it before then saying, "You have at least four more days of freedom before I get to take you to SI with me. Which is good... Especially the board of directors and a lot of others are demanding to meet the new boss-"

"So I'm free today."

It wasn't really a question. Merely a need to be totally sure that she was free for the time being. Pepper made a humming sound as she took a bite of her breakfast and nodded her head as she shut down her phone and then put it away again.

"Did you have something that you wanted to do?" Happy asked curiously. "If so then I can drive you wherever you want to go."

"I have no real set destination in mind," Ichigo said after a moment or so of thought. "I woke up this morning and just realized that I haven't been seen doing anything out in public since the press conference..."

"So you were thinking of going out and being seen." Pepper finished for her. Ichigo didn't really say anything as she reached across the table and grabbed one of the orange cranberry muffins from the plate between them.

"Yeah. Something like that. But the truth of the matter is, I have no friends to hang out with. I could try simply doing something that kids my age do-"

"Like walk around a mall, shop, get hit on by boys-" Pepper said.

_"Boys suck."_ Rhodey deadpanned almost absently. Barely listening to the conversation since he had been the last to awaken and had only had one cup of coffee so far. Thus deeming it too damned early to pay attention to anything at all. Yet wanting to add his two cents to the conversation anyways so that everyone would _remember_ that he was in the room to _veto_ all of their ridiculous ideas.

Despite the fact that they could still see him and didn't really need the reminder.

Both Ichigo and Pepper looked at the still slightly asleep man and shared a knowing grin before Ichigo uttered.

"Yes. Boy's suck." Which got her a somewhat unhappy look from Happy who was already worried about where she was going with this. She gave him an apologetic look and then decided to plow onward. "So I was thinking, that since boys suck and all- Maybe I could do something else. How do you guys feel about animals?"

"Love em." Rhodey said as he set his coffee cup down, looking just slightly more aware of what was going on now. Happy looked...marginally less upset about where the conversation was going and perked up a little bit in his seat.

"I adore animals." Pepper said before quickly tacking on. "But if you get any, then _you're_ taking care of them. Your sixteen, not six. So don't expect us to clean up after your pets."

"That's fine." Ichigo said easily before she then started asking questions about what kind of pet they would prefer that she get. Rhodey and Happy seemed to like the idea of a dog being around.

Which was understandable since they could train it to be a guard dog for her. But she didn't exactly like the idea of putting an animal in any sort of danger if she could help it. So she began to wonder if she should just get something small.

Pepper liked the idea of a cat or two or even ten. _Whatever._

Though she pretty much suspected that much before the woman even spoke. She sort of liked the idea of having a couple of cats for companions too. But worried that if their home was attacked then there chances of them being injured or killed was substantially _higher_.

Depending on their size, age, over all health and so on.

Getting specially trained animals- while nice- wouldn't help any that might already be looking at certain death at an local animal shelter. And while no kill shelters held mostly the surrendered, abandoned, or even lost and suffering from injury and abuse...

If she had to get an animal- she preferred to _save_ a life.

But she also knew that rescue animals had it almost just as bad given how cramped and overwhelmed no kill shelters tended to be. And she couldn't really exclude any animals from them from any prospective adoptions either.

It would be cruel to deny any of them a home if she found what she wanted at either of the places.

_I'll have to check out all of them I guess._ She thought to herself as she made a mental note to see about helping some of the local animal shelters avoid killing some of their charges by fixing up a place for them and seeing if she could find them homes.


	13. Chapter 13

"Pepper must have _leaked_ that you were going out into town today." Happy said with a small frown as he eyed the not-so-small-ish mob of people that had swarmed the car the second that it had come to a stop.

"Maybe." Ichigo said with a frown as she took note of the various people and the cameras and microphones that several of them were carrying and sighed. _Well damn._ She thought darkly as she spied several familiar faces amongst the crowd present. _It looks like I've picked up a few stalkers already._

Rukia would be so proud of her. _Not._

"You ready to do this, kid?" Happy asked as he turned his head a little bit to look at her. As if trying to gauge whether or not they should just leave.

"As ready as I'll ever be for this nonsense." She muttered and glared as something hard hit her window. "Crap! I think if we don't get out then someone just might try to break the damned windows out on the car."

Happy made an annoyed sound as the next hit against the car window nearly shook the car. "That's bullet proof glass kid. Even if they try, it isn't likely to break."

"That's not exactly one hundred percent though. Happy. Especially since I think someone amongst the group might be enhanced or something."

Happy got a funny look on his face. A cross between 'oh shit' and 'are you fucking kidding me' that might have made Ichigo laugh if not for the fact that he was quickly grabbing a gun out of a small compartment between the driver seat and the passenger one and then slipped out of the vehicle.

Apparently not wanting some 'enhanced' dumbass paparazzi to somehow manage to compromise the integrity/safety of the car. He managed to get a lot of people away by flashing his gun- not exactly in a threating manner- but more of a reminder to everyone present that he was licensed to use _excessive_ force if he deemed it totally necessary. To defend not only himself, but her as well.

It must have been something that he had done a number of times when he'd worked as her dad's bodyguard. And while she could appreciate the fact that he was 'reminding' people that he was packing and unafraid to use the weapon in self defense. She didn't like that the weapon was deemed necessary at all. But could understand why Happy had pulled it out anyways.

Enhanced people, and 'supers' were quickly becoming the norm. They often popped right out of the woodworks and if one of them was amongst the crowd outside frothing at the mouth to get pictures of her- then that made that person more _dangerous_ than the usual vulture- ah, paparazzo. She meant to say paparazzo.

By the time he managed to get everyone back, and open the car door for her Ichigo had already seen the face of the guy that had been hitting the car window, and was currently gauging his threat level as she slid out of the seat and stepped just a bit to Happy's other side.

Allowing him to shut the door and lock it before he carefully started to herd her down the sidewalk a little bit.

"How you doing kid?" Happy asked as he managed to put a little bit of distance between them and the crowd. It wasn't a huge distance, but it was just enough to be able to semi-drown out the sounds of various people talking all at once as well as the sounds of camera shudders as her picture was taken.

"Good. You?"

"Anxious. Let's get this over with and get the fuck out of here." Happy muttered as she nodded her head in understanding since she took his words to mean, _We're too exposed here. Be quick._

She hadn't meant to rattle or upset Happy when she'd voiced her concerns a few minutes prior. But she understood how he felt about being close to someone 'enhanced' that he knew nothing about, and might have trouble fighting off if they were to try something.

Sighing softly she viciously squashed any feelings of disappointment at not being able to linger out in the city for a little bit. And focused on her task.

Adopt a pet. And get the hell out.

Right, she could do this. It was simple.

However the moment that she entered the animal shelter she sort of...morphed into any other kid looking for a pet. Which she was sure was disappointing to Happy on so many levels. But since she wasn't distracted enough to _not_ be able to sense anything malicious from the guy from before just yet, she went ahead and done the whole walk through thing.

She stuck fingers in cages, petted, talked too and even occasionally cooed at the adorable fur babies there. While others got her attention for entirely different reasons.

One, a little short furred kitten, was slightly deformed. With it's front legs turned in towards it's little chest. Her ears and eyes were a little bit unusual too. The both of them just slightly longer/wider than normal. Oh! And she had a cute little stubby tail!

Ichigo must have stood at her cage for several minutes, just rubbing her short fur and noticing just how unbelievably _touch starved_ the kitten was. She wasn't feral. At least she didn't act like it anyways. But she also acted as if she'd been denied any form of affection whatsoever.

Naturally this didn't sit well with her. And it sat even less well with her when the guy from the front of the shelter came and announced that it was time for the kitten to 'go'. And then opened the cage and started to pull the mewling kitten from it as Ichigo demanded, "Where are you taking her?"

"She's been here too long," The guy said as he started to move to cradle the kitten when Ichigo reached out and literally snatched the little cat from the guy's hands and cradled her against her chest and started to rub her ears to ease her distress. "Hey! I have to take her to the back." The guy protested as she glared at him and growled out.

"You try and touch her and I'll shove _you_ into that miserable little cage."

Happy didn't even try to reprimand her for her threat. Probably because he didn't think that she could actually do it. Either that or he simply was surprised that she was irked enough to really do it. Whereas the guy didn't seem the least bit bothered by her growling at him and simply smiled at her as the kitten started to purr, loudly and simply asked, "I guess you'll be taking her?"

"Yes," She said slowly before then adding. "But I also plan to take several others too." The guy simply nodded his head at her words and said.

"If you can save a few more from dying- you'll make my day. You'll make their day too."

"How many are to be put down?"

"About five for now."

"Show them to me."

The guy just grinned and motioned for her to follow him. She fell into step beside him easily, and Happy wandered along behind them as the guy took her from cage to pen to see the animals whom were set to die. Only one of them was an older animal, a dog. A pretty white and black Malamute that was a little over fifteen years old.

She was about to ask Happy what he thought buy he was already at the pen talking to the pretty boy. She and the shelter guy both glanced at him from over their shoulders as they heard the Malamute let out a low _Ror_ , sounding bark _._

Happy grinned at the dog and told him to be good and he'd be back soon before walking off to catch up with them.

One of the other animals set to be put down was a pretty little seal siamese with stunningly vivid turquoise eyes. Ichigo was more than happy to adopt her too. As well as an elderly bunny that someone had injured and left to die, that wasn't doing very well at the moment.

She decided to adopt one more animal before trying to think up an idea for helping the others.

One idea of course, was to buy the shelter and talk to Pepper and Rhodey about helping her organize an adoption event/fund raiser since part of the problem with kill shelters was the overcrowding. Another was limited funding.

The third was the lack of people wanting to take on the responsibilities of owning an older, special needs, or sick animal. Frankly Ichigo thought that anyone dumb enough to take an animal and promise to care for it in sickness and health and then tire of them. The responsibility to care for them and so- _needed_ to be dragged out into the streets and _shot._

Maybe more than once. Depending entirely on the severity of their animal's overall health and condition upon their abandonment _._

As far as she was concerned there is no excuse for cruelty towards their four legged companions. Regardless of _what_ was wrong with them. Or what perceived insult or injury someone may have received.

After all, contrary to popular belief...thinking that your animal was stupid because they didn't want to behave a certain way, or because they were old and weren't 'cute' enough anymore wasn't any goddamn excuse to abandon them.

Neither was anyone deciding to have an animal killed for scratching or biting when they felt threatened or agitated.

Finally reaching the last cage, she blinked at the slightly large feline crammed inside of it and then blurted out, "Good lord, is that a baby panther?"

"No. But he does have some wild cat blood in him."

"That explains his size then." Ichigo muttered as the feline looked at her with the most pretty citrine colored eyes and then inched closer to the door of the cage to sniff at her hand when she raised it to the metal. "How old is he?"

"About eight months."

"Still young..."

"Yeah. Some cat breeder bred him and then decided that they didn't want the little guy."

"Hn, animal owner's remorse?"

"Nah, stupidity." The guy said as he scratched his chin. "After he left the little guy here, he got himself arrested for illegally breeding special animals and then selling them."

"I hope that they throw the damned book at him then." Ichigo deadpanned in an unsympathetic tone.

"Me too." The guy said with a soft sigh. "I've already had to put his dad and several of his littermates down. I don't really want to put him down too. It's a waste."

Ichigo hummed as Happy walked over and peeked at the feline and let out a low whistle. "Damn he's a pretty little fella."

"Yeah, most people hesitate to adopt him because of his size. Others hesitate to even look at him twice because of his wildcat blood." The guy said. "They find him intimidating."

"Who can blame them? He's huge!" Happy said before then looking at her and huffing quietly as she announced,

"Alright. I'm sold. I'll take him too. Happy," She said as she turned her head to face him. "Go collect your dog." He scowled at her and then said with a haughty sniff.

"His name is _Rocky_." And then turned and while she wasn't looking jogged back towards the dog's pen and shouted, "Rocky! Guess what? Your going home with me, buddy!"

Ichigo was hard pressed to hide her smile when she heard the Malamute's _Ror._


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get a little bit dicey in this chap.

Everything was fine.

Hell, it was damned near perfect as far as Ichigo was concerned right then.

She and the shelter guy were watching Happy get his new dog excited about going home. And were laughing at the two when she suddenly felt _it_.

The malicious feeling was like a cold tingle along her senses, jolting her into action before she was truly aware of what she was even doing.

She managed to push the shelter guy hard enough for him to fall to the floor. And then grab Happy and pushed his head down so that it was at least shielded somewhat by her body, and shouted for Rocky to _hide_ at the same exact moment that the large glass window behind them shattered and there was a series of rapid popping sounds.

Ichigo knew enough about weapons to know when a gun was going off. She was as familiar with them as she was with her zanpaktou and could automatically tell _what_ kind of gun was being used, and just how much damage it would do if the bullets hit anyone.

Happy screamed like a little girl as she put him on the floor. Probably because he hadn't been expecting something like this to _actually_ happen. And partially because she didn't have any time to offer any explanations to him as she kicked his legs out from under him at the same instant that she felt a bullet hit her side and realized that she couldn't protect him like this.

Instances like this were rare in the world of celebrities.

But even Ichigo knew that her dad had enemies, rabid fans, and stalkers. And many others just as _dangerous_ waiting to come out of the woodworks.

She also knew that a lot of those people wouldn't care if they went through her, or any of his friends, just to get to him.

She stood very, very still as the popping sound fell silent.

Barely aware of the fact that she'd been hit _twice_. She took a moment to take stock of her injuries before deeming them superficial wounds, her pain and blood loss would be very minimum due to where she had been hit. And none of her organs or arteries had been hit.

Despite the burning throb of both wounds- they likely wouldn't _slow_ her down or _stop_ her any if she went after the guy that shot at them. Which was good and all, since it meant that she wasn't defenseless. But before she did anything, first she needed to check on Happy and the shelter guy and then everyone outside that may have been shot.

The second thing that she needed to do was check on the animals. Any of them that might have been hit by the spray of bullets would require medical attention.

"Jesus fuck!" She heard Happy roar as he quickly scrambled up off of the floor with his gun in hand. "Ichigo! Are you-"

Knowing his question, she automatically cut him off with, "I'm fine. Check him," She motioned to the shelter guy who was lying on the floor in a daze. Happy took an extra moment or so to look her over for any injuries. Thankfully, missing the blood staining her clothing for the time being before then reluctantly going to check on the other guy as Rocky let out a low whine as he peeked around the back of the counter.

Upon seeing him, Ichigo smiled a little bit and patted her hip with one hand to indicate that he could come out. The Malamute walked over to her and sniffed at her hand for a second before she petted him and then softly told him to 'guard' Happy and the others and then turned and started to step outside through the broken window with her phone already in hand.

* * *

Rhodey was watching a movie when Friday- for reasons yet unknown to him- turned the channel on the TV to the local news and refused to change it back as his cell phone rang.

"Well shit." He muttered once he realized what he was seeing.

There on the TV was news of Ichigo and Happy going into a animal shelter- and the place being shot up by an overzealous paparazzi whom had apparently wanted some pictures of her desperately enough to put her life- and Happy's and everyone else's in the general vicinity- in danger.

_"Fuck!"_ He shouted angrily as he grabbed his cell, and finally answered it, feeling only marginally relieved to hear Ichigo's voice on the other end of the line. "Are you alright kid?!"

* * *

Tony stared at the news report of his daughter being caught in a shooting and had to carefully school his expression to hide his worry and fear. Hydra had a few goons in the room with him who were going on about three of their guys being captured by the feds.

And while they weren't exactly paying him any attention, he couldn't take the risk of showing any weakness in front of them. Just in case.

After all, if they would do god knows what to Barnes while they had him, he could only imagine what they might do to him or Ichigo- if they ever got their hands on her.

He stared at the TV screen with a calculating expression, his dark eyes going over the footage of the man that had shot at his baby girl and Happy, making sure to commit it to memory so that he could hunt the son of a bitch down with the kind of _extreme prejudice_ that could only come from an angry father.

Upon seeing Ichigo step out of the animal shelter window and systematically started checking on the people out on the sidewalk and in the streets, he relaxed a little bit and allowed his mind to wander. For now he felt safe in the knowledge that his little girl was okay.

* * *

Ichigo wrapped up talking to Rhodey and letting him know that she and Happy were okay as she checked on the people lying on the ground groaning and crying. While the guy that had shot the area up had mostly focused on shooting at the shelter, he'd run away while still pulling the trigger and some of the bullets had struck some people outside.

So far she counted seven people hurt. However two of those people had just bled to died from their injuries.

One had been a shot to the head. Another, had been hit in the chest. Right it the heart. She'd held his hand while he'd died and done her best to console him in his final moments. But it wasn't enough.

She could already see his spirit was trapped and she would need to do something about that later so that he wouldn't linger long enough to be attacked by a Hollow.

Slowly setting the dead man's hand down, she then got up and moved over to some of the others who were hurt.

One guy had been nailed in the throat, the artery there had been torn in half and a woman was trying to staunch the bleeding and was freaking out because she didn't know what to do. Ichigo gently pushed the woman out of the way and quickly got to work on trying to save the guy by reaching into the bloody wound and attempting to grab both ends of the artery and pinch them closed.

It was messy work due to how much blood was seeping through the torn flesh, and the guy kept making the mistake of moving even after she growled at him to _stop_. It took her far longer than she would have liked, but she finally got the vein pinched closed at both end.

It wouldn't totally save him, but at least she was buying him time so that the emergency services could get there.

She was still sitting there pinching the vein closed when Happy and the shelter guy finally showed up. Happy of course announced himself with an somewhat anxious sounding, "Ichigo!" While the shelter guy looked around at the injured in a little bit of a daze.

"Happy! Check the others that are injured! some of them have stomach wounds and stuff. See if you can help to stabilize them!" She said and motioned with her head for him to go. He nodded and ran off. Which left shelter guy to finally stumble her way.

"What do you need me to do?" He asked once he managed to shake himself out of his daze.

"There's a couple people with arm and legs wounds. As far as I could tell they aren't life threatening, but they need help slowing the bleeding."

He nodded his head soberly and then scampered off to do his part while Rocky walked over and sat down beside her to keep watch. Ichigo's lips tugged up a little bit in a small smile as she cooed, "You're such a good boy." to him.

* * *

In Wakanda, there was little for the rogue Avengers to do all day aside from watching TV. So naturally when the news report on Tony's niece played, they all watched with varying expression of anger, worry, and concern.

T'Challa had been visiting them to check on all of them since he knew what being cooped up with nothing to do could do to a persons mental health. He had been particularly concerned for Barnes and Wanda. Maybe even Scott too since the man missed his home and family badly and tended to suffer from 'cabin fever' more often than not.

The visit had been going good up until their movie had been interrupted by Shirai walking through the door and changing the channel on them all. Earning a bunch of protests from them all.

However they quieted down immediately, T'Challa, Barnes, Steve and several others leaning forward a little bit in their seats as they watched the footage unfolding half a world away.

"Oh my god-" Sam said as they watched a closeup of Ichigo going around checking on everyone before coming to a stop next to one guy who had been shot in the throat. "Please tell me that she isn't there alone."

"Nah, Happy's with her." Someone said as the man came out of the animal shelter along with another guy and what looked like a wolf dog with white fur.

They could hear her barking out orders to Happy and then the guy that had followed him outside asked what she needed him to do. And they heard her give him orders to help those with less life threatening injuries as several reporters quickly moved in.

"Miss Kurosaki! Are you okay?" One reporter, a woman that Steve and several of the others recognized as Christine Everhart, one of Tony's former one night stands turned friend, asked the girl.

"I'm fine," Ichigo said as she looked up at the woman hovered near her with a guy holding a camera close behind her. "Are you okay ma'am?"

Christine looked slightly taken aback by the question for a second, but then assured the kid that she wasn't injured. She and her friend were fine.

Ichigo's expression was grim as she asked the two if they were currently filming the chaos.

And upon getting a confirmation from Christine, Ichigo asked if they'd been lucky enough to see the face of the guy who had shot the area up. Upon getting another confirmation from Christine, and even one from her camera guy, the girl gave the two a feral looking smile and asked them in a weirdly polite tone to ' _please, document everything_ ' before she started talking.

Quickly cataloging the number of the _dead_ and _injured._ As well as the severity of each person's injury.

The whole thing was...really damned _nerve_ rattling to them. Especially since the girl was sitting there holding a vein in someone's throat to prevent them from bleeding to death right there on live TV before then saying, "I want the police to get a copy of this video. The man who shot up the animal shelter just a few minutes ago is a _murderer_. And I want the son of a bitch found. _Immediately_. The authorities need to be aware that the guy may be a mutant or even enhanced, and should take precautions. He is armed, has killed, and is very dangerous. So please be careful."

Christine nodded her head once she stopped talking and then asked her if there was anything that she or her cameraman could do to help out, and Ichigo merely told them to split up and go see if they could help the shelter guy and Happy. She made it clear that Happy was dealing with people who's injuries may be life threatening while the guy from the shelter was dealing with those who weren't in such a bad way.

After that the camera guy set his camera down next to Ichigo and the dog and ran off while Christine stepped around the small group. The clicking of her heels on the pavement sounding as she moved away from them to go and do what she could.

There was more footage from several other reporters after that that showed everyone working to help the injured. Ichigo couldn't move because of the severity of the injury that she was trying to help with, but she could give people orders on what to do until help arrived.

There was also footage of Chirstine and Happy both doing CPR on a couple of people who stopped breathing. All in all the whole even took ten minutes for any sort of help to arrive on the scene. And in the aftermath of the emergency responders showing up- so did Rhodey and Pepper.

Rhodey in one of Tony's cars. And Pepper showed up in her Iron Maiden suit.

The two converged on Happy and Ichigo as some medics tried to get the girl to get checked over due to all of the blood on her. And if not for the fact that Pepper wrapped her arms around the girl- they were pretty sure that none of them would have realized that she was even _injured_ in the first place.

However Ichigo's loud yelp at having the woman's arm wrap around one of her bullet injuries, and cause a savage flare of pain to shoot through her, got her into trouble.

It was Christine who voiced the question first though. Mostly because of how observant she was.

"I-Is that a bullet wound?"

"No."

"Ichigo!" Happy shouted in disbelief. "Did you get shot?!"

"It's really not." The girl said weakly as she tried to escape Pepper's grasp on her as the woman unceremoniously yanked her shirt up to reveal the small, raw looking crimson hole just under her ribs and then looked at her face with an angry expression before shouting,

_"Are you fucking kidding me?!"_


	15. Chapter 15

Tony nearly flung himself up off of his cot the second that he heard everyone screaming on TV as well as got a close-up of one of his little girl's bullet wounds, utterly appalled. But had to resist the urge greatly when searing agony pierced through his torso. Causing him to settle back on his bed with a low growl/groan of annoyance before turning his attention back to the TV for more details on his daughter's wellbeing.

He was only vaguely relieved that all she had was a small wound.

Honestly it was barely a little bigger in size than a dime, and it didn't seem to be bleeding all that much at all. And Ichigo didn't seem all that bothered by it either up until she had been hugged by Pepper- still...the fact that his baby girl had been shot- made him so unbelievably angry that he felt the Extremis in his blood _burn_ with the depths of his rage.

The glow of it licking along his insides, lighting up his skin and veins and eyes so brightly that it got the attention of the goons in his dinky little cell. Startling them into demanding what he was doing as they went for their guns.

Tony merely smirked at them as he felt his previously shattered and broken bones, organs and everything else knitting back together at a much faster pace than before. It still hurt.

_Excruciatingly_ so. But if it gave him half a chance to escape this hell hole that Hydra had put him in- then he'd fucking take it. Especially if it meant that he could finally go home again.

Now that he felt his Extremis kicking into overdrive, he felt stronger.

The voice from the narrator of the Six Million Dollar Man slithered through his mind making him grin in a maniacal manner that would have sent lesser men screaming from the room, _We can rebuild him. We have the technology to make him better, faster, stronger-_

He laughed as he launched his first attack at the freaked out trigger happy nazi's. And he kept laughing even as he snapped their bones, ruptured their internal organs and dropped them to the floor screaming before kicking the door off of his cell and running outside.

* * *

Thor looked around the empty common room of the new Avenger's base with a slight frown on his face.

"Where is everyone?" Bruce wondered aloud, voicing Thor's own thoughts for a the moment.

"Perhaps they are on a mission... You're friends are heroes after all." Loki said from behind the two men, causing them to turn and scowl at him for a moment as the dark haired man slowly put his hands up and fell awkwardly quiet again.

"Maybe." Bruce said almost sadly as he wandered over to the couch.

Like Thor, he'd been longing for home for a while now. And to be perfectly honest, while he hadn't exactly expected to be welcomed back with open arms after abandoning the team during the events in Sokovia- he hadn't really expected things to be so _unnervingly_ dead either.

Where was Tony? Steve? Nat? Vision? Clint?

Wouldn't _someone_ have been around just in case they had come back?

"Just how badly did I fuck up?" He wondered aloud as he started to sit down when the TV suddenly clicked on causing all three men to freeze up for a moment.

"Jarvis? Is that you?" Thor called out.

_"No, I am not Jarvis."_ An annoyed female voice replied.

"Oh. Begging your pardon then Lady-"

"Friday. Boss named me Friday."

Thor smiled happily to finally have a name to go with the disembodied voice. "Greetings Lady Friday, I am-"

"I know who you are Thor, prince of Asgard. Dr. Bruce Banner, A.K.A The Hulk. And Loki, brother of Thor-" Friday replied before then asking. "Aren't you supposed to be _evil_?"

Loki thinned his lips a little bit, wondering if seeing if he could be given asylum here on Midgard after everything that he had done was a bad idea as Thor said, "He isn't evil anymore Lady Friday. In fact, we found evidence to support the fact that at the time of the attack on New York, Loki was being controlled by someone else."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." Both Thor and Bruce said in unison.

"I see." Friday said as she quickly began to pour over every little bit of information that she could find in her databases about Loki so that she could gauge whether or not he was a threat.

Sure enough, she found some evidence to support Thor's claim. It was in the security footage that Shield had recorded after his capture. Loki's eyes at the time had been _blue_.

And not just any blue either, but that same eerie glowing blue that Clint had had when he'd been mind controlled.

"We were hoping that with the evidence that we found, then maybe we could try to clear him of the charges against him so that he could stay with us." Bruce explained.

"I understand, and have also found evidence to support your claims. And while I cannot truly say yay or nay, I can help you to prove your claims to the others. However just know that if I suspect any malicious intent from him during his stay- I will not hesitate to destroy him." Friday said.

"We understand, Lady Friday." Thor said soberly. "Please let friend Tony and the others know that Loki will be my responsibility alone."

Friday was quiet for a moment before then saying. "I'm sorry but I cannot tell boss or anyone else anything for the moment..."

"Oh that's right!" Bruce said as he sat up a little bit straighter on the couch. "Everyone must be on a mission."

"No." Friday said. Her tone must have sounded ruder than she meant for it to be since Bruce looked up at the ceiling where he probably assumed that she was, with a peculiar look on his face as Thor asked.

"If they aren't on a mission, Lady Friday... Then where are our friends?"

"MIA...mostly."

_"What?!"_ Bruce asked sharply as Thor and Loki both reached out and placed their hands on the man's shoulders to try and calm him before he turned green on them as Loki finally chimed in and said.

"Lady Friday, please start from the beginning and explain everything."

* * *

Ichigo sat in a hospital bed with a annoyed scowl on her face as the nurse assigned to her started to chatter away at her while she bustled around the room like an overly chipper, meth addicted _squirrel_.

_How. Dare_ Rhodey, Happy and Pepper do this crap to her. Didn't they know that she freaking _hated_ hospitals?! As if the fact that she'd tried to escape the building _four_ times already wasn't a frigging clue.

_The next time I make a run for it- I'm taking a hostage. Maybe then they'll be less reluctant to_ _let me leave._ She thought darkly as she eyed the woman ping-ponging herself around her private room.

If not for the fact that Rhodey was sitting in the large wingback chair next to her bed, watching her every move like a fucking hawk, she would have chucked her bedpan at her head already.

Thankfully though, the woman seemed to finally get that she wasn't feeling terribly talkative or friendly at the moment, and quietly excused herself and then left within ten minutes.

"That was rude." Rhodey said the moment that the door was shut.

"No, rude would have been me chucking my bedpan at her."

"Hn. Yeah, that would have been rude too." Rhodey said before looking away from the door to her face. "I can see the gears in your head turning kid. Already planning your next jail break?"

"You really need to ask?"

"Nope." He said with a slight grin before then saying, "Something tells me that you're more like your dad than any of us might have initially imagined. He's sort of a bad patient too."

"So in runs in the family then." Ichigo said as she scanned the room for something that she could maybe use to _get the_ _fuck out of here_.

It wouldn't take much to distract everyone. She just needed something really, _really_ attention grabbing to take their eyes off of her for a moment or two. And then she could slip out the window and start running like a newly escaped mental patient.

"What are you thinking?" Rhodey asked, still knowing that she was planning out her next possible escape.

"Maybe setting the curtains on fire..." She muttered and he snorted.

_Holy hell_ she was exactly like Tony whenever he was in the hospital somewhere. Setting something on fire was usually Tony's default plan when all else failed to get him _out_ of hospitals and other things.

Like five hour long meetings with General Ross. But then Rhodey couldn't exactly blame Tony for wanting to escape those. The man was positively foul.

"It really bothers you that your here doesn't it?"

_"Yes,"_ Ichigo hissed out. "I'd much rather be at home with you three and my new minions, than here, thank you very much."

He sighed and reached over and patted her hand lightly before then saying, "I might be persuaded to break you out of here," She noticeably perked up. "But only if you promise me that you'll rest and do as I or one of the others say. Just until you're better."

Ichigo took a moment to consider his words carefully before finally saying, "Fuck it. I'm easy, and will agree to everything as long as it's within reason. Just get me the hell out of here man."

Rhodey stared at her hard for a moment. Almost as if he were weighing the pro's and con's before nodding his head and slowly getting up and going to flag down at doctor and negotiate her release before she really _did_ set something on fire.

He'd never seen anyone so desperate to escape a hospital before. But given her previous occupation, maybe she had simply spent so much time in and out of them that she'd grown to loathe them as much as he did.


	16. Chapter 16

Pepper wasn't exactly sure what the hell she was staring at upon walking into the the compound to free all of the critters that Ichigo had decided to save from death row. But a panther cub, was definitely not within the top ten things that she had expected. At all.

I mean, what the hell were they supposed to do with it? Ichigo couldn't possibly intend to keep the little- and she used the term loosely given the fact that his head reached her knees already in height- guy.

Her day had been long and stressful and _yes_ \- she was completely and utterly _pissed_ that Tony's little girl had gotten shot. On her second public outing no less.

God if Tony's genes were any stronger in the girl; Pepper would swear up and down that she'd be kidnapped by someone, held hostage for _months_ , suffer unspeakable torture and come back to them in a giant clunking metal suite any damned minute now.

Still, even she had to admit- her injuries aside- Ichigo had done good today.

Hell, she had done _excellent_. So much so that she had exceeded Pepper's expectations of her. And probably Rhodey's and Happy's too given what had happened.

As it was, Ichigo was being hailed as a hero for helping the injured and dying after the shooting.

The news footage of her stepping out of the animal shelter and going around tying off injuries and trying to stop blood flow and checking everyone lying on the ground around her and such had literally gone _viral_.

She had already gotten multiple calls from various news sources, and magazines- everyone asking if the girl was okay- once she had been revealed as injured herself. As well as being asked if she would be willing to do some interviews, TV programs, and a couple _dozen_ other things.

Pepper had naturally told them _no_.

That while the girl's injuries weren't life threatening- both bullets had hit non critical areas and she had lucked out of having her arteries and organs torn to pieces like several of the other victims. And Ichigo would understandably be recuperating for a while _undisturbed_.

She's had to stress that last little bit to everyone lest someone show up unannounced just like Ross tended to and piss them all off badly enough to consider doing someone bodily harm.

Heaving a sigh as she thought about everything, she absently knelt down and released the little grey kitten and the rabbit. Taking a moment to pet them both on the heads before they had hopped off before then turning her attention to the gorgeous little siamese and releasing her too.

She was a tad bit reluctant to release the panther cub in the compound, not just because his size was a little bit intimidating, but lest he get himself into some sort of trouble due to his _claws_ and those razor sharp little _teeth_ of his.

But after a moment or so of careful thought decided that he _should_ be okay as long as he didn't attack anyone or anything. I mean, a majority of the compound _was_ empty. And it wasn't like he could stay in that cramped little cage forever.

He needed room to stretch and move around otherwise he could become sick.

Besides from what she could see so far- he was a total sweetheart. And if Ichigo had chosen him, then he couldn't be all that bad. Right?

She hesitated for a moment longer before then slowly opening the door to his carrier and watching as the mini panther ambled out and then flopped down at her feet and stretched himself out and started purring happily as he laid his head down on her shoe and looked up at her with those wide pretty eyes.

"Wow, you really are a big baby aren't you?" She muttered to herself as she knelt back down and began to reach out to pet him. He merely gave her a cutesie yawn and rolled over so that she could pet him on the stomach for a few minutes. And then once she was done petting him, he slowly got up and trotted off to explore.

Leaving her alone for the time being to go to her room and get cleaned up and try to catch up on some of the work that she missed earlier.

* * *

Ichigo had some of Tony's bad habits too, Rhodey noticed on the ride back to the compound once she was free of the _accursed_ hospital- and yes she actually used that word. Which was all kinds of hilarious to him- the first thing that she wanted was a frigging burger.

With bacon, cheese, extra onions and pickles.

Rhodey didn't really see the appeal since he was wanting to go straight home and then get her settled and check out her new pets; which Happy had yet to tell him anything about. But wasn't above _laughing_ at him for some unknown reason whenever he asked for any info about them.

So once Ichigo had her burger- well burgers anyways.

She for some reason conned himself and Happy into letting her order seven burgers exactly as she liked them. And after that Rhodey merely sat there and watched her scarf down the first three burgers as if she were starving to death and hadn't had a meal in like...ages.

Rhodey had wanted to crack a joke about her so being hungry, but decided against it when she offered him and Happy a burger. And as sweet as it was to offer the two of them some of her food, both men weren't hungry. Besides, Ichigo kept giving off the impression that if either of them reached for her food- they'd pull back a bloody stump.

So it was probably for the best that neither of them accepted the offer.

The ride back home was fairly quiet after that. Well if you call finding yourself in a car with someone who not only was a little bit hopped up on some pain meds- that the doctors had forced on Ichigo to make her more comfortable on her trip- and tended to _growl_ like a feral animal whenever she couldn't find something in her food bag- quiet.

As far as the guys were concerned, the trip back home couldn't be over fast enough.

Which was why once they finally reached the compound, the first thing that Rhodey did was exit the car. And kiss the ground. He didn't even mind that Ichigo sort of stepped on him a little bit as she got out of the car.

All he was really aware of as he lay on the ground was a soft and somewhat awkward sounding, "Whoops." followed by a quick, "Sorry, I didn't see you laying there." Before the girl literally ran for the front door of the building out of embarrassment.

Leaving Rhodey to holler, "Yes, _run_. Frolic and be free- go find your little critters and socialize them."

_"Your grounded!"_ Happy called out and got a funny look from the man that he quickly defended, "What? That's what your supposed to do when your kid does something stupid like getting shot up."

* * *

"Friday! I'm home! Did you miss me?" Ichigo called out as she walked down the hall.

"Very much, little boss." Friday replied and then asked. "Are you alright? Do your injuries hurt any?"

Ichigo made a small humming sound, deciding that it was best that no one really figure out that the pain meds from the hospital were useless to her, before saying. "I'm fine, Ai. The bullets didn't hit anything major, and the doc was nice enough to give me some pain meds to help me stay comfortable before he sent me home."

"I'm glad that your okay, little boss. It would be very lonely without you running around and causing mischief." Friday said tentatively.

Ichigo tilted her head back and smiled so that Friday could see her face a bit better. "I'm glad that I can be of use to keep you and the others from being bored." She was fairly certain that Friday could hear her amusement. But was ready to apologize just in case she couldn't.

After all, there was no point in hurting the AI's feelings.

"So...anything interesting happen while I was away? What about my little minions? They settling in okay? And is Pepper here or did she run back to SI to finish her work?"

Friday hesitated to tell her that Bruce, and Thor had finally returned from...wherever they had been for the past few years. But only because she wasn't sure how Ichigo would react to Loki being there as well.

So she started with where the...minions were and then told her where Pepper was and what she was doing. Which seemed to make her little boss smile before she then worked up the courage to mention Dr. Banner and Thor's arrival along with Loki's presence.

Ichigo went strangely still for a moment. Her whole body freezing up a little bit as a frown appeared on her face before she asked what he was doing there. Friday gave her a quick, but thorough breakdown of everything.

Including the little bit of evidence that she had found to suggest that Loki had indeed been mind controlled during the attack on New York almost seven years ago.

Once she finished, Ichigo just sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands and muttered, "So much for grabbing the minions and crashing for the rest of the day. Alright Friday, where are they?"

"They have not moved from the common room at all since their arrival."

"Alright. Tell the others that we have some guests. Just...don't mention Loki outright. I get the feeling that Pepper and the other two would rather _shoot_ the man dead than listen to him even attempt to explain himself."

"You're probably right, little boss." Friday said almost sadly as Ichigo straightened her spine and then started walking. Intent to handle this on her own instead of wait for things to snowball out of control for everyone.


	17. Chapter 17

To say that Thor and Bruce were... _upset_ by everything that they had learned had happened between their friends/comrades since they had left, was both an understatement and understandable given the circumstances. However, learning about how everyone had basically turned on Tony after they had left- how they had lorded the Ultron incident over the man as if it were totally his fault...

It didn't sit well with the two of them.

Bruce had been so distressed at the damage that had probably been done to the man- the emotional manipulation and abuse that he'd suffered- that his skin had been tinted green a bit for more than an hour. But he didn't change into the other guy. Though the Hulk had _certainly_ wanted to make an appearance to stomp some asses into the ground over Tony's less-than-friendly treatment at the hands of their so called friends for the past few years.

And Thor, he had bowed his head and cried for Tony.

When he had left, he'd been upset and disturbed by how quickly he had turned on the man when his mind had been tampered with. He had always hoped to come back and be able to mend what he was sure that he'd unwittingly broken.

He'd thought that Tony would be _okay_ with the others around. He hadn't expected them to continuously treat him with such _hostility_. After all, it wasn't as if Ultron's creation was entirely his fault.

His mind had been tampered with too.

_All_ of their minds had been. That was part of the reason why Bruce had left so abruptly. It was part of _why_ he himself had left so abruptly as well.

He kept seeing his hand gripping Tony's throat, in his minds eye. And it physically sickened him to think of just how close he'd been to _irreparably_ harming or even him. All he truly recalled aside from the guilt, was the rage that he'd felt at the time.

He'd never felt such deep overwhelmingly blatant anger and hatred before for anyone before. Not even his worst enemies. Even once the mind control had been gone, he'd _still_ felt remnants of those deeply disturbing emotions and had feared that he may lash out at Tony and the others if he stayed.

He had gone home hoping that the distance would help him sort himself out before he returned. Still...he was deeply upset that his mortal family had fallen apart while he'd been absent.

Bruce was as well, though it was probably because his time spent amongst the Avengers had given him a sense of purpose that he'd never had before. To them, he wasn't _just_ the Hulk, a destructive monster. He was an Avenger. A hero.

He was also friend Tony's science bro.

He was protected here.

Sheltered from those that would abuse him and turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. He also had a home here and the family that he'd always wanted, yet always been denied.

So this was quite distressing for him for a multitude of reasons. All of which were completely understandable.

Apart from their friends and teammates turning on their Tony, they had also _used_ him to find the person responsible for the death of his parents, and then attempted to kill him while saying that he was being 'unreasonable' for wanting to bring them all in before things snowballed out of control even more than they already had.

And now he was missing and no one knew if he was dead or alive.

Searches were ongoing, or at least that was what Lady Friday had told them. But they couldn't help but wonder who was _actually_ and actively searching for him.

There was one thing that brought them some happiness. Friend Tony's secret family.

Lady Friday had been quite forthcoming with information on the child. A young girl, of all things. Learning that their friend actually had some blood kin left in the world was _wonderful_.

However learning a little bit about her past (a child had no place in the military, ever) and the reason _why_ she had finally been acknowledged by Tony and his friends- not so much.

Sure Friday had touched a little bit on the subject of the Accords. But she hadn't been able to explain everything.

She had however explained that without a heir- Tony's fortune, company, properties, inventions and all of his other assets could be seized by the government and used however they wish.

She had also told them that General Ross had been visiting quite often and threatening Rhodey, Pepper, and everyone else.

Bruce reacted poorly to this news.

Probably because he knew more about the man than Thor did.

If not for Friday showing the video of Ichigo fearlessly knocking the old man on his ass, which resulted in Bruce letting out a slightly hysterical laugh- he might have actually changed into the other guy and rampaged a bit. This of course, was doubly true when all of them had found out that the girl had been injured earlier in the day by a deranged man with a gun.

Even Loki had been pretty pissed at the man's cowardice. So much so that he'd actually threatened to hunt him down and skin him alive. Bruce had equaled his sentiment. Though his eyes had been toxic green and his expression mirrored one of the Hulk's more familiar- I'll-turn-you-inside-out-for-fun feral looks. Thor merely muttered that he'd strike the man down with some lightening.

It'd be difficult for him to run and hide if he was technically charcoal. Right?

Though all of them had been impressed with the girl's shocking amount of bravery as she went about checking and tending to the wounded, as well as how cool headed and calm she had been when giving information to Christine Everhart about the shooter.

Because of her aid...only two men had died. And several others had been spared particularly gruesome, and painful deaths.

Which was why the three of them were both _surprised_ and somewhat _panicking_ when Friday announced that the girl was heading their way and would be there within moment.

Loki stood up straight and quickly checked his hair, while Bruce looked around for something to help ease his nervousness- and literally came up blank. After all, what was he supposed to do? Fuss with his clothing? The couch cushions?

He didn't even have a gut to suck in.

Unlike Thor, whom had a little bit of a beer gut. Though it was fairly small and barely even noticeable unless one really, really looked closely at the man. But then he supposed that a thousand years of near constant drinking would do that to a person.

They didn't know what to expect when the girl finally walked through the door, but having a small pack of felines, and a bunny in tow- wasn't what they expected at all.

But then neither was her quickly walking over to Bruce, handing him the bunny and then pushing him down to sit on the couch again. Bruce took a second the look at the bunny- which also looked at him- the both of them having mirroring expressions of confusion on their faces as she quickly said, "Do me a favor, and pet the bunny doc. I've been gone all day and the poor little guy is anxious enough about being here."

"Uh...o-okay." Bruce said as he started to pet it but froze when the bunny made an uncomfortable squeaking sound that promptly led to his hand being slapped. Hard.

He looked up at the girl, startled by the fact that she'd actually just _slapped_ his hand, to find her glaring at him. "Mind his leg. It was badly broken thanks to his previous owner and didn't heal right." He blinked, dumbfounded at her as her glare lessened a little bit and she explained. "His leg still hurts him and he's not been doing too well recently."

"O-Oh. Okay." Was all that he could think to say before he started to pet the bunny again. This time more _carefully_ since the back of his hand was still burning and throbbing like hell from being smacked by her.

_What the hell did she smack my hand with anyways?_ _Hulk-busting armor?_ He wondered as his eyes drifted to her hands with a small scowl.

Ichigo turned to the others once she had him taken care of. And now focused her attention on both Thor and Loki- and then called out for Friday to seal the room off.

Which...wasn't the least bit _ominous_ to any of them at all. They liked sealed up rooms and feeling like prisoners. _Not._ After he and Thor had spent all that time being gladiators on that godforsaken planet that they'd escaped from, being locked in a room- any room at that- made them all just a little bit... _twitchy_.

They all stood/sat perfectly still while Friday did as she asked. After which she also asked Friday to stop monitoring the room and recording any conversation that might occur between them.


	18. Chapter 18

"Is everything locked down Friday?" Ichigo asked as she eyed the two men before her with a small frown.

"Yes, little boss."

"Alright thanks. And before I let you...meander off to do other things- can you tell me where Rhodey and the others are? I mean, are they on their way here? Do I need to grab these three and run?"

"Not at the moment. They know that there are guests present-"

"Uh-" Bruce opened his mouth to ask why they were being referred to as guests, but she quickly shushed him. Her expression telling him not to question her at the moment.

"However as you have specified, I have not mentioned Loki as of yet... Do you have a plan, little boss?"

"Something of one. Have you gathered up what you can to prove Loki's innocence?"

"I'm working on it."

"Good. Once you have everything, I need you to forward it to my computer. And help me find a lawyer that can help us prove it before a court of law."

"Okay!" Friday chirped almost happily before she...went away for the moment.

Once she was sure that Friday wasn't still listening to her, she sighed and turned with a slightly apologetic look to the three men. "Gentlemen, I apologize for the less than stellar welcome. But I had to literally move faster than I usually do to keep the others from coming and possibly attacking someone." She looked pointedly at Loki as Bruce and Thor both pointed at him for confirmation and got a slow nod from her as she tacked on. "Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable, guys. I have a feeling that we're going to be talking for a while about where you two have been. And just why you thought it would be a good idea to bring _Loki_ with you."

Thor and Loki both shifted from foot to foot in an slightly uncomfortable manner but didn't say anything for now since they understood where she was coming from.

Especially after all of the damage/loss of life that Loki's last visit had caused.

Thor and Loki seated themselves in the other chairs arranged around the couch while Bruce tried to get her to sit down. His argument went something like, you were shot, you need to sit. Whereas Ichigo merely told him that her injuries were flesh wounds and she was fine where she was.

She knew that she sounded kind of cold and standoff-ish to them despite the fact that she wasn't trying to be. She just...really was okay where she was.

Of course that changed significantly when someone- maybe one of the _three_ pseudo Rents that she was apparently now stuck with- decided to start banging on the door and yelling to be let in so that they could see who was there.

She panicked for a second and wondered if she should toss Bruce out there so that she could talk with Loki and Thor, but in the end decided against it since it would be cruel to expect the doc to distract them. Plus...there was the matter of his abrupt disappearance that was going to need to be explained too. And she was pretty sure that the others might be kind of pissed at him for one reason or another.

So it was best not to leave him alone with them for now.

She also knew that she couldn't just toss Thor out there to distract them either. Loki was his brother and he would want to hear what she had planned to keep him out of trouble.

Worrying her lower lip, she tried to think of a way to get them to listen to her if she opened the door and let them in. After all, she could imagine that locking them out of the common room when they had company, must seem pretty damn suspicious to them.

"Aren't you going to let them in?" Thor asked, already able to hear several familiar voices speaking beyond the door.

She looked at him for a moment before asking him somewhat grimly, "Do you want your brother's head to stay attached to his shoulders?"

"She has a point Thor." Bruce finally said quietly. "Loki's last visit pretty much cemented a lot of hatred and malice towards him. Especially about his character. If she opens the door and let's them in..."

"They will attack," Thor said looking rather tired. Beside him, Loki seemed...resigned to _whatever_ might happen once the door finally opened, whether it was bad or not. "I understand. However they need to know that he is here as a comrade, not an enemy."

"Loki," Ichigo said sharply drawing the man's green eyes to her as she asked, "What do you want me to do?"

The dark haired man's eyes widened in disbelief for a moment or so- giving her the impression that people didn't bother to _ask_ him what he wanted very often, if ever at all- before he masked his expression and simply said. "Do what you believe is best. As my brother says, they need to know."

She nodded her head and then bent down a little bit so that she was looking him in the eye as she said, "I promise that I won't let them hurt you."

He blinked at her and opened his mouth intending to say something like, 'Don't lie.' Or maybe, 'Don't make promises that you can't keep.' Or even, 'I've had so many people promise me things, great and small, and they always disappointed me in the end.' But abruptly snapped his mouth shut upon seeing the determined look on her face. Shock warred with puzzlement within him.

Mainly because aside from his brother, no one had ever earnestly promised him _anything_.

And the fact that she would do so- even if it meant going against her current guardians/friends- was...strangely sweet. Frowning at her, he absently nodded his head since he was unable to trust his tongue at the moment and watched her give him a small smile of encouragement before she headed towards the door and told Friday to please lift the lockdown and let the others in.

* * *

A little while later-

After a little bit of wrangling on her part, Ichigo managed to get everyone calmed down enough to _not_ try and kill Loki. Well sort of anyways. Happy kept trying to get her mini panther to _try_ and eat the man. However her fur baby ruined everything because he was content to simply lay on the man's booted feet and purr up a storm.

Which resulted in her getting _glared_ at for a few minutes since Happy was so, so, so disappointed in her cat that it probably shouldn't have been funny. But sort of was anyways.

At present everyone was sitting around the common room. Either petting something furry, or outright glaring, or fussing over Bruce and herself.

"Ichigo- honey, how are your wounds? Are they okay? Are you hurting any?" Pepper asked in a concerned tone as she looked her over for any signs of discomfort or anything else that could indicate pain.

And for good reason too.

The second that Ichigo had had the lockdown removed and let them in, she'd had to literally wrestle with the three of them. Granted Pepper hadn't been that upset. Not even upon discovering the fact that Loki was present.

No, she'd been more worried about Ross possibly being there to harass them again. Rhodey and Happy had probably thought along the same lines at first. However upon seeing Loki sitting in one of the chairs- Happy had pulled his gun, and started shooting.

Which had apparently upset everyone present- especially when he'd nearly _shot_ Ichigo for the third time that day. This time nearly in the face. And quickly had it taken apart in his hands by said girl before he could fire off anymore rounds.

After that, she'd kicked Happy's legs out from under him and stomped on him once in a weird parody of reprimand that Pepper thought was just perfect since it didn't really need any explanation at all. Her stomping on him had conveyed all of her annoyance and irritation in one move.

It had been beautiful. And Pepper was going to tell Tony all about it once he was home again so that he had a fair warning before he did something stupid or crazy to set the girl off.

Rhodey had summoned two suits- and then _gaped_ in slack jawed disbelief as Ichigo had dismantled them too. Although the way that she did it was...absolutely mindboggling to the man. Hench the gaping.

Pepper couldn't help but gape at the girl too when she took the suits apart.

Tony had spent months upon months putting those things together to help protect and defend them. How the hell had Ichigo managed to zero in on their weaknesses and take them apart without truly damaging them?

To Pepper, it had looked as if the girl had _literally_ taken screws and bolts out of them and simply let them fall apart.

Pepper hadn't bothered to get pissed about the whole fiasco. Though she'd gotten upset a little bit when she'd gone to step a little bit further into the room and Ichigo had read her action as some sort of a threat. And had immediately grabbed her around the waist and tossed her over one of her shoulders- her injured one no less.

She had naturally shrieked to be put down, which Ichigo did.

Across the room, onto the couch next to Bruce where she found herself being handed the little grey cat which had been freaking out due to the gunshots and stuff.

Bruce had merely looked at her, barely pausing at all in his petting of the frightened bunny and said, "She seems like a handful."

Which caused her to grunt an affirmative and started to pet the cat in her lap while the girl had then grabbed both Rhodey and Happy and dragged them into the room, and shoved them into a couple of seats. And quickly _warned_ them not to move. She didn't have to say the words, _or else_ , since they were obviously implied.

And the two men weren't stupid enough to set off her temper again. After all, anyone who could so easily dismantle their favorite toys- suits/guns- was obviously someone to be very afraid of in their minds.

Which...wasn't wrong.

Anyone who could do what Ichigo had just done downright terrified them. But then having themselves stripped of their few means of defending themselves would scare the bejesus out of pretty much anyone.

"I'm fine," Ichigo finally said in an effort to reassure her. But the painful throbbing in her wounds was starting to irk her given the fact that she hadn't had any chance to lay down and stay still long enough for her regeneration to really kick in. "But we need to finish up this talk soon so that I can go and get some rest." She said as she reached up to absently rub at her hurt shoulder.

"This would be over faster if that useless panther would just eat Loki already!" Happy growled at her with an frustrated look on his face.

"You leave my little Raphael-cat alone. He's a lover, not a fighter." Ichigo said with a scowl as she dropped her hand away from her shoulder. "And it would be nice if you would stop trying to make him a man eating little monster. Do you even know how difficult it is to cover up animal's eating people at random?"

"Why do you sound so strangely knowledgeable about that?" Bruce asked warily.

"Because I _am_ knowledgeable about it." She gritted out.

Bruce got this weird look on his face. Sort of like he was half surprised, and yet not. Thor and Loki must have been surprised about her confession too. They were both looking at her oddly too.

"Can't he just-"

"No."

"But-"

_"No means no goddamn it!_ Now drop it!"

Happy closed his mouth, but had a mutinous look on his face that told her that the argument was far from over as she sat back in her seat with a tired sigh before then saying, "Now, if everyone is done throwing hissy fits and stuff- I'd like to get to work." Motioning to Thor with a hand, she added. "Thor has some found some evidence suggesting that during the time of the attack on New York, Loki may have been mind controlled by someone else. As such, what happened wasn't entirely his fault. And it's our job to hear them out and see if maybe there is a grain of truth to this claim."

"You sound like a lawyer." Thor asked curiously.

"I have a minor law degree." Ichigo deadpanned as Rhodey huffed and then muttered,

" _Crap._ I can't believe that I forgot about that." Which earned him a giggle from Pepper and a very shark-esque smirk from Ichigo before he said, "Alright. We'll hear Thor and Loki out."


	19. Chapter 19

Ichigo let Thor and Bruce take the lead on explaining things to the others.

Which was probably a good thing since they knew more about Loki than she did. And when the others didn't believe them, Ichigo had Friday pull up whatever she had already found to prove their claims weren't false.

And _no_ \- they weren't being mind controlled either- like Happy had stubbornly decided since Loki was a 'bad guy'. While they were looking through what Friday had found from Loki's last visit to Earth, Ichigo made her mission of sorts to point out that his eyes had been the same color of glowing _blue_ as Hawkeye's when he'd been under mind control.

And had then set about arguing with all of them that in many cases of someone being mind controlled, the person controlling them usually left _physical_ evidence behind on the person.

And when Happy had snapped at her that she couldn't possibly know that- she's showed him and the others the small scars on her temples and the one on the nape of her neck too.

In most cases, the only truly noticeable one was the one on her nape. However since she'd lost a little bit of blood earlier, that made the ones on her temples stand out just a little bit more than usual.

And naturally after everyone- including Thor, Bruce, and Loki had _seen_ the small scars- she'd then had to explain about how she got them.

Which wasn't pleasant for her considering the various events that happened before and after she'd broken the mind control on her. However once she finished talking, she saw Pepper and Rhodey both exchange a severely _displeased_ look. While Happy looked a great deal less...upset about Loki's presence and more rattled by the idea of her being mind controlled by someone on three or four separate occasions.

Finally Rhodey seemed to think things over a little bit more before asking, "Okay. We get it. If Loki was in fact mind controlled during the attack on New York, then he isn't exactly responsible for all of the damages, death and injured. So what's the plan? How are we supposed to help him? You do know that anyone who finds out about his presence will cry that we are being controlled too. And he'll likely wind up before a firing squad-" Pepper quickly slapped a hand over his mouth to shut him up before interjecting smoothly.

"What Rhodey means, is that he still has to stand trial for what happened before."

"I'm aware of that. So this is what we're going to do- he will stand trial, but we're going to work towards getting him acquitted of all charges. He'll do a little bit of time on probation to earn our trust." She said as she felt Loki start to open his mouth, and absently reached out and grasped his hand and gave it a small squeeze. Startling him into silence. "He'll have to wear a tracker that can help us locate him at all times. So that if he gets himself into trouble of some kind, we can either help him or-"

"Apprehend him." Thor said in a resigned tone. Ichigo thinned her lips a little in displeasure but nodded her head quietly before then continuing.

"Yeah. Look, I'm not saying that it'll be easy. It won't. But for now, he's safer here in our custody than anyone else's. I mean think about it, trapping him in a jail cell would be a bad idea of _epic_ proportions. Especially given how many people are likely holding grudges over what happened. Besides, we're the ones best equipped to handle him if he does become a threat."

"You're right. We are. However once you get him acquitted, then what will we do with him?"

"We'll, we can find him someplace to live if it's what he wants. He'd be freer to come and go however he pleases. And if he doesn't object...I really think he'd do well as one of the new Avengers."

Loki, Thor, and Bruce all looked at her with expressions of utter bafflement, shock, and wonder as she tacked on, "I mean think about it. Just because he likes mischief doesn't make him a bad person. Neither does being able to lie really well. Some of the best lies I've ever heard were from the business end of a weapon- and he can do that whole...glamour thing. That could be really useful for going undercover and infiltration. And since Bruce and Thor were never _removed_ from the original Avengers roster, then they can also be part of the new Avengers group. Loki would have some familiar faces, and wouldn't have too much trouble being a solid member of the group."

Pepper grinned while Rhodey scowled at Ichigo and then turned to her and asked, "Have you been teaching her how to argue? I feel like you've been teaching her how to argue."

Pepper's grin got downright shark-esque as she chirped happily, "That's right. The second that your backs were turned I taught her really bad things. Be afraid _._ "

_"We are."_ Both Rhodey and Happy deadpanned in unison while the other three men merely observed them as Ichigo then decided that their talk was done for now and tapped Loki on the hand to get his attention and motioned with her head for him to follow her.

He didn't know how they managed to sneak out of the room, especially with the animals (except the rabbit- it seemed to have refused to join them) in tow, without being noticed by anyone. But they somehow managed it.

"My lady-" He started to ask her what she was doing. After all, he couldn't imagine anyone being very pleased at her taking him and running off. Especially while injured. And on top of that he could literally _feel_ the fatigue and pain that she was currently feeling, rolling off of her in waves.

And it made him increasingly uncomfortable. Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure how she hadn't lost consciousness just yet. But he was worried that she might be overdoing things a bit, to see to him.

And he wanted to put her at ease.

You know, let her know that he was alright with being left to his own vices for a little while. It wasn't as if he'd never been left alone for a stretch of time before. In fact it tended to happen fairly often.

However he never got the chance to really say anything before she reached out and grabbed his hand in hers and began to tug him along with her down the hall while the felines wound themselves around their legs and meowed excitedly.

"My name is Ichigo, not my lady. There's no need for you to be so formal here. So try to relax okay?" She said as she led him into a room. It was furnished, and appeared to have someone already staying there from the looks of the few things present. There were a few pictures in little frames.

Not many, mind you. But about four or five of them in all.

There was also a...laptop computer? sitting on the small, low table between the couch and the rest of the seats.

Letting go of his hand to let him explore her room a little, she started talking at the cats. Saying random things like, "Yes, yes, I know." and "You're all hungry. And in desperate need of lovin's." and "Let's get you taken care of so that you can take turns flopping all over me."

Her little one sided conversation with the felines made Loki's lips twitch in amusement as the animals practically started to climb all over her when she pulled out some cans of tuna from a cabinet in the kitchen.

He watched her feed them and pet them before she finally rejoined him.

"Sorry, I didn't realize how demanding they would be." She said in a slightly apologetic tone as she walked back to him.

"That's quite alright. I'm well versed in the...needs and affections of animals."

"You've had pets before?" She asked curiously causing him to smile a little. It was a small smile. Almost shy in nature, but it transformed his features quite a bit.

"Some," He admitted. "Snakes, wolves- my _brother_."

Ichigo huffed a quiet laugh at how he referred to Thor as a pet.

The blond did seem sort of like a giant golden retriever. The man was said to be hyper affectionate and so damned cheerful that it was just ridiculous.

Honestly, if anyone had told her a month ago that she would be having to meet/deal with someone so cheerful- she would have not only laughed at them, but punched them in the throat and laughed again. But...here she was.

Meeting people that she didn't even know existed- well okay that was a lie. She knew that they _existed_. Disgustingly cheerful people always existed somewhere.

But that didn't mean that she had to be happy about it any. After all, she had a reputation to maintain.

"May I ask why you brought me here, My- er, Ichigo?" Loki finally asked.

"Oh, right. I didn't explain anything before I dragged you off." She muttered before then saying, "I thought that you might appreciate a little bit of time away from everyone. You know, to relax and unwind a little bit."

He looked just a tad bit startled by her words and gave her another small smile. "That's very kind of you. But is this not your own room?"

"It is. And I have to be in bed soon." She said quickly, her words causing him to raise a brow at her. "But- I thought that maybe since I'll be asleep soon anyways, that you can just hang out here and rest and stuff. Maybe watch some movies? I have food in the kitchen too if your hungry-" She said as she pointed towards the kitchen area before awkwardly tacking on. "I mean, I don't know if you've eaten just yet or anything. But you can help yourself. It's not going to bother me any."

"That...is...sweet." He said, stumbling over the words a little bit because he wasn't entirely sure what else to say. He was at a loss here with how to deal with her. After all, she was a _child_.

A brilliant child. But a child nevertheless.

So it wasn't as if he could treat her as if he would _other_ females. No- he had to tread carefully here because of her youth. Which...wasn't terrible or anything. Especially since he _liked_ children.

The fact that Ichigo was in her teens, meant little to nothing to him. To him, when he looked at her- he saw someone in need of _protecting_.


	20. Chapter 20

"So...Tony has a niece?" Bruce said awkwardly once everyone finally settled down again after realizing that Loki and Ichigo were both gone. Happy had nearly ran off after the two- but Pepper forbad him to. So he'd slowly sat back down again and started to anxiously bounce his leg while Rhodey made sure that Friday would keep an eye on them while they continued their talk. _Sort of_. "Like an honest to god _biological_ niece? Why didn't he ever mention her to any of us? I mean, where did she even come from?"

It was difficult to ignore the slight hurt, anger, and disbelief in the Banner's tone. No matter how they might want to try. After all, he and Tony were close. Supposedly anyways- if he'd had a family of any kind- he would have mentioned it to the man.

Or at least that was what Bruce was thinking.

"Aye, why did friend Tony never mention the girl to us? Is it because she is still young and defenseless?" Thor asked.

Both Pepper and Rhodey exchanged a look for a moment before he then looked back at the two men and slowly said, "Well, to be totally honest here. She's actually his _daughter_ -" The looks that crossed both men's faces were half shocked and half dismayed as he went on to say, "And even we didn't know about her until just before the Ultron incident. Up until then Tony had sort of... _hidden_ her the only way that he could think of."

"S-She's Tony's daughter? Seriously?" Bruce stammered out a little.

"Yeah."

"B-But- uh..."

"How?" Thor suddenly asked.

Pepper decided to chime in by saying, "Well, when a man and a woman like each other-"

"No, no, no. I know very well what happens between a man and a woman. What I meant was-" Thor fell quiet for a moment as he searched his mind for the right words to aptly describe what he was thinking, but came up oddly blank.

"Where's her mother?" That had Thor looking at Bruce so fast it was a wonder that he didn't give himself whiplash. "We haven't met her yet. I mean, she _is_ here right?" Bruce asked. "Do we need to be worried that she might go hysterical or something if she meets us or Loki?"

"Uh, no. Misaki isn't here." Rhodey said slowly.

"Don't tell me that she just dumped the girl here expecting Tony to take care of her." Bruce snarled, obviously thinking the worst of the woman even without meeting her.

"No, no, no- it's really nothing like that, I promise." Rhodey said quickly. "She didn't abandon Ichigo here. She died when Ichigo was just a little kid." He explained. "She was raised by her step dad who knew about Tony. And finally decided to tell her everything since Tony's missing and she's his heir."

"Oh." Was all that Bruce managed to say, looking just a little bit sad before asking, "So she was adopted? I can't imagine Tony actually put her up for adoption."

"He didn't. Not in the traditional sense." Pepper said softly. "Misaki and Isshin both kept in touch with Tony over the years. Informing him of all kinds of things that he was missing out on. And that continued even after Misaki died. So when Tony went missing... Isshin felt that it was finally time to sit her down and tell her everything. He sent her here, because Tony left instructions to do so in the case something happened to him because she's his only living kin. His only _known_ heir."

"And unless he comes back alive at some point- she is literally set to inherit everything that he owns." Rhodey chimed in before then tacking on, "Which isn't terrible or anything. The kid seems to be more... _capable_ than we initially imagined her to be."

"Oh?" Thor was the one to ask this time. Prompting them to tell the two about her a little bit more.

Which both _included_ and at the same time _not_ \- her former military career. They made sure to mention vague incidents that they'd read about in Ichigo's medical and phycological files so that the two would be prepared for various behaviors and such.

However the mention of those incidents seemed to upset the two. Especially since she'd been basically much younger than sixteen during the time of the incidents and had literally been tortured by some assholes.

Naturally, Bruce wanted to let the other guy out to stomp some asses into the ground. He couldn't help it any. If there was one thing he absolutely loathed seeing, hearing, speaking about- it was any form of child abuse. And _yes_ \- Ichigo had been gravely abused from the sound of things.

Thor must have been thinking pretty much the same thing. He shot him a look- not any old look either- but one that Bruce was becoming familiar with as his _I-will-smite-those-fuckers-and-laugh-while-they-burn_ look. Loki had a similar expression when he reached his limit.

So seeing that look right now wasn't all that surprising to Bruce.

He did return the sentiment wholeheartedly though.

* * *

Loki was trying to be quiet but seemed to be failing at it miserably since Ichigo kept twitching and cracking an eye open to look for him.

The girl had gone to bed soon after their arrival at her room, exactly as she had said she would. However she had also dug out some stuff for him to read, showed him how to work the TV remote, and a few other things. Including managing to find him some satin pants and a clean shirt to change into if he wanted to try taking a bath at some point.

He appreciated the kind gestures. Truly he did.

He just wasn't sure _what_ to think of them.

And then there was the fact that she told him that if he got tired at any point, then he could take her bed. She'd sleep on the couch.

Loki was a lot of things- a jerk, a prince, a killer, and warrior- but he would never be so unchivalrous as to take a bed from a girl. Especially a child.

_An injured child._ He reminded himself with a slight frown as he tried to focus on paying attention to the movie that she'd put on the TV for him before laying down.

That was another thing that bothered him. After he had refused to take her bed from her, she had decided to drag the mattress- which seemed to be at least three times her size and body weight- into the living room and had made herself comfortable a few feet away from the couch. Which was where she was currently resting, with all of her feline friends.

And it _vexed_ him to no end that she would do such a thing.

He couldn't imagine a child- a injured one no less- deciding that it would be good for her to not only drag a heavy object into her living room, but also try to sleep on it when it would probably hurt her even more. Honestly, did the girl not comprehend what she was doing to her injuries? To her spine?

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He had to do _something_. And he did. He wasn't all that sure it was the greatest thing to do- after all, he didn't ask for permission or anything. But well, he wasn't all that sure who to _ask_ for permission here anyways. And it wasn't as if he'd done anything terrible.

The mattress had looked hard. So he used his magic to soften it so that it would feel as soft as a cloud. He also moved the mattress and the girl and her felines all to the bedroom. Miraculously without waking or startling any of them. After which, he flopped himself back down on the couch and finally managed to actually enjoy the movie he'd been watching until he dozed off.


	21. Chapter 21

Ichigo had to ditch her body once she was absolutely certain that Loki was either too occupied to notice any changes in her, or the slight fluctuation in her power as she used it. Once that was done, she left the compound to go take care of the guy that died earlier that day in the shooting.

He was still at the scene of the incident when she arrived, just...hanging out and watching the people passing by him with sad eyes. She wondered if he'd been trying to communicate with anyone up until now or if he'd just stood there in shock all day?

"You look like a puppy that's just been kicked a few too many times. I'm guessing that you just figured out that your gone." She said as she walked over to him. The sound of her voice causing his head to snap up and around so that he was looking at her.

"Y-You can see me? Hear me?" He asked in a trembling tone. "H-How?"

Ichigo didn't reply right away. She felt it was more necessary to let a random stranger walk through her spirit form right then- to clue him in as to why she could see and hear him. The look on his face when the person went through her was priceless.

She doubted that she'd even seen anyone look quite so...comically startled before. And under different circumstances, she might have laughed. But this was a somber occasion and humor was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment as she scanned the surrounding darkness for Hollows.

They were lucky that none had showed up just yet. But that luck wouldn't hold out forever. One was going to show up sooner or later. And she needed to make sure that the guy was gone before then.

"Are you... _dead_ too?" The guy asked her hesitantly, looking as if he just might cry if she was.

"No. I'm not dead." She said gently as she moved just a tad bit closer to him and reached up to draw her zanpaktou. "I'm...well, I suppose that the closest explanation that I can give you is at present I'm having a little bit of a near death experience. I'll wake up later, just fine."

"I'm so glad." The guy said in a relieved tone before then rambling a little bit. "I saw you here earlier today. You checked on me even after I was gone and even covered me with something. Thank you, for that."

"I'm just sorry that I couldn't help you." Ichigo said quietly as the guy shook his head.

"Don't think like that. You had enough on your plate already with helping the others. You did a great job, by the way. I was rooting for you the whole time! I was really worried when I found out that you'd been shot too!"

Ichigo smiled a little at his words, and quickly pressed the end of her sword hilt against his head and watched the glowing gold symbol appear on the startled man's forehead. "Thank you for saying such kind words. I'm going to help you go on now." She said as he slowly disappeared from her sight until all that was left was a Hell's Butterfly, fluttering in front of her.

"Be safe on your trip." She said as she waved the butterfly off and then just stood there watching it until it was completely gone. Sighing softly, she then turned and started to move back towards home.

* * *

Loki had no idea what the hell had happened.

All he knew was that he'd drifted off to sleep at some point only to be awakened a little bit later by Bruce, Thor, and the others showing up- startling him awake- and demanding to know what was _wrong._ But since he didn't know what was going on, he was about to send them away out of worry that they might wake the girl up when Friday chimed in and stopped him.

Apparently Friday had noticed something was wrong with Ichigo and had alerted everyone of that fact. Which is why he was currently standing in the doorway watching Bruce try to resuscitate her since she didn't appear to be breathing at all.

"Come on, come on," Bruce gritted out as he pressed down on her chest several times and then pinched her nose between his fingers and covered her mouth with his own and breathed into her. "Don't die on us. It'll kill Tony." The man growled as he did this a few more times before then checking for a pulse.

The snarl that left him nearly sent Happy into a dead faint as Pepper announced, "The ambulance is on it's way! How is she doing?"

"She still isn't responding to CPR. Thor! Get over here and give her a small shock!"

"Aye." Thor said as he moved over to where Bruce was as the man arranged the girl's body just so and shooed the cats away so that they wouldn't get shocked as well. Thor was about to reach out and shock Ichigo when Loki happened to look over to the corner of the room, feeling as if he were going to be ill any second now when he noticed her standing there taking in the scene with a disgruntled look on her pretty face.

He had to do a double take because he wasn't totally sure of what he was seeing. But from the feeling of the power rolling off of her- he'd say that he was looking at a very powerful _non_ -human entity.

He opened his mouth to say something as she finally noticed him and lifted a hand to give him a small, awkward finger wave as Thor shocked her for the first time. Loki cringed a little bit at the power of the shock that Thor had used on her. And had to move quickly to intervene before he could manage to shock her again.

"Stop!" He shouted as he practically lunged across the bed and grabbed his brother's wrist in his hand, startling everyone while Ichigo used the small opening to slip back into her body and blot upright with a blood curdling scream.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone dies in this chap.
> 
> It's...kind of dark. And oh my god I wanna do a Bruce/Ichigo fic so bad!

To say that Ichigo was displeased that she'd been subjected to a little bit of lightening- which had left painful and raw burns on her chest- while she'd been outside of her body, would be an understatement.

However after she'd _punched_ the holy hell out of Thor on reflex- hitting him more than hard enough to knock him across the room and make a nice Thor shaped indent in one of her walls- and startling not only him but _everyone_ else too.

Still, hitting him had made her feel considerably better about getting the damned lightening burns in the first place. She did apologize to him though.

It would have been weird if she didn't since the man was only trying to help.

So now here she was, lovingly wrapped in a blanket with some hot chocolate in her slightly shaky hands, and everyone anxiously _staring_ at her and waiting for some kind of explanation of some kind as to what the _hell_ had happened to her. While Bruce was checking her over to see if Pepper should cancel the ambulance or not.

He was gentler than she'd expected him to be considering how upset he'd been while trying to revive her. His hand pressed a stethoscope against her skin, careful of the new wounds that she was sporting so that he could check her heart and lungs while Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy all hovered just a foot or so away.

She'd have to be more careful with her Soul Reaper work after this- ditching her body this time had proven to be more frightening to everyone than she had realized it would be. But then she was used to being surrounded by people who _knew_ about her Soul Reaper activities too... So this entire incident was sort of her bad for forgetting that before she'd gone to do her job.

I'll have to find a way to make it up to them for scaring them. She thought to herself as Bruce removed the stethoscope from her skin and sat back with a slight huff. His dark eyes looking her over in a slightly calculated manner before he finally said, "You're heart is beating a little bit irregularly-"

"Probably from being shocked." She said evenly, trying to ignore the way that Thor visibly _cringed_ at her words. "It'll take another minute or so for it to pick up a regular rhythm again."

"So that's normal for you then?" Brue asked, that calculating look on face wasn't easing up any. If anything it appeared as if the man was going to be stubborn about things.

"Sometimes, yeah." She said as she nonchalantly sipped her hot chocolate while she stared him down.

The man gave her a quick, feral looking smile- an indication that she was tweaking his nose just a tad too much and he was a breath away from fucking her shit up in retaliation. Deciding that she should ease off of him a little bit and _stop_ poking the Hulk with a stick that he could obviously use to beat her with, she looked away for a moment and set her drink aside as he asked,

"Are you in any pain?"

"Not as much as I probably should be." She caught him narrowing his dark eyes just a tad as he tilted his head inquisitively at her.

The way that she had just responded to his question was obviously _not_ what he'd wanted or expected to hear. And she could have literally kicked herself for it if not for the fact that Loki and Thor seemed to be the only other two people to pick up on her words. And everything that they _hinted_ at.

"Bruce?" Pepper finally said the man's name, interrupting his little stare off with her. "Is she okay? Do we still need the ambulance?"

Anyone who ever said that Bruce wasn't quick on his feet was a liar. And a terribly one at that. In the seconds that it had taken for Pepper to ask her question, the man had already planned out how to get everyone aside from himself, Thor and Loki alone with the girl.

"No. The ambulance isn't needed." The man said. Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy seemed to visibly exhale in relief before the doc then tacked on. "If it's alright with you three, I'm going to hang out here and keep an eye on her. Loki and Thor will help, just to be on the safe side."

Ichigo not only stiffened upon hearing this. But paled as well and started babbling, "You don't have to do that! I'm perfectly fine!"

Bruce merely turned his head to look at her and smiled a weirdly jovial smile before saying in a mockingly soothing tone, "Nonsense. You stopped breathing and had no pulse for-"

Friday quickly chimed in helpfully. "Nearly ten minutes, Dr. Banner."

"Nearly ten minutes," Bruce said with an slightly evil looking smile that had her nearly sweating bullets while getting flashbacks of her first time training with Kisuke. Back when she'd lost her Soul Reaper powers back before she'd gone to save Rukia.

Honestly if she never saw another smile like that man's again, she'd die happy. Kisuke may be her godfather, but he was also just a little bit _crazy_. And not the 'ha, ha' kind of crazy either.

Sadly, the gods seemed to hate her right then and favored Bruce and his plan to 'keep an eye on her'.

Pepper cancelled the ambulance. _Like a good little puppet_ , Ichigo thought to herself as the Doc managed to wrangle everyone out of her room/living quarters with the assurances that they'd take care of her. Of course when he assured them that, she started to look around her room idly for an escape route.

Wondering if maybe she would get away with breaking one of the tall windows? She doubted that they'd be able to catch her very quickly if she did. After all, she could flash step fast enough to break the sound barrier if she really wanted too.

The second that the door was shut, turned around and called out. "Friday! Initiate privacy protocols now!"

"Right away, Dr. Banner."

_"Traitor!"_ Ichigo hissed as she glared up at the ceiling for a moment before then blinking and shouting, "Wait! You have privacy protocols?!" While the Doc finally returned to the room and stood there with his shoulder leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and considered her for a moment before slowly pushing away from the and moving in closer to the bed.

She watched him quietly as he slowly asked, "So...do you plan to fess up to being a super or enhanced person? Or do I have to torture it out of you?"

"Torture. Definitely torture. I like the kinky shit." She deadpanned without thinking. However her words seemed to give the Doc pause for a second before he combed his fingers through his dark curls and muttered with a slightly wry smile.

"Damn, that's such a Tony-ish response." While both Loki and Thor chuckled in amusement behind him. "You would be a little smartass huh?"

"I'm not trying to be a smart-anything." Ichigo said with a slight frown as the Doc sat down on the edge of the bed closest to her.

"No? Tony never meant to be one either, but his mouth tends to run away with him at times. I guess that's something that you both have in common."

"Yay me." Ichigo sighed, suddenly feeling more than a tad bit drained. She shoulders slumped a bit and she drew her legs up to rest one of her arms on her knee.

"Look, you don't have to explain everything to us." Bruce finally said after a moment of careful inner debate. "But something obviously happened to cause this incident to occur in the first place. Tell us what you can and we'll fill in the blanks later, when you trust us a little bit more." He said in a coaxing tone.

"I honestly can't tell you anything." She said tiredly.

"Why not? We could help you? Cover up...whatever it is-"

"No. _You can't_." She spoke a little bit sharper than she meant to. Her tone bleeding with frustration. "I can't tell you anything! It's against the rules!"

"Who's rules?"

"Dr. Banner, forgive the interruption, but little boss has an incoming call."

Sighing, Bruce told Friday to put the call through over the speaker and a second later they all heard a voice roar, _"Ichigo Kurosaki you keep your mouth shut!"_ A second later her cell phone chimed indicating a message had been sent to her and she quickly grabbed the phone off of her bedside table and flipped her phone open and paled when she saw what had been sent to her as the voice went on to say, " _You are not so far away from us that we can't still reach you girl. Those pictures are to remind you of what will happen to your family and friends if you talk."_

_"Friday! Hang up now!"_ Bruce shouted as he reached out to take the cell from the girl's fingers. He had a sneaky suspicion that whatever had been sent to her- especially given her reaction to it- wasn't pleasant.

_Man I hate being right_ , He thought as she quickly threw the covers back and ran to the bathroom where he could hear her vomiting as he looked down at the cell phone to see what had been sent to her as Thor walked up and peered over his shoulder.

There was a picture of a girl the same age of Ichigo, with shoulder length light brown hair, and red framed glasses lying in a pool of blood with half of her insides torn out. She hadn't died easy. Nor quickly if her expression was any indication at all.

And there was a little piece of paper with the name, Chizuru Honsho, lying next to her head with some school pictures of the dead girl and Ichigo standing with a few others laughing.

Thor let out a menacing growl before then disappearing into the bathroom to see to Ichigo while Bruce's eyes flashed green with barely suppressed rage.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some interesting BS science inventions in this because...well, if Kisuke could invent anything- I can imagine him inventing these cool, and destructive toys.
> 
> Because he is sort of a mad scientist.

Ichigo rested her head against the wall as she sat curled up next to the toilet, staring blankly ahead at nothing. Unaware for the moment that she was having a panic attack over Chizuru being killed because of her.

The moment that Thor entered the bathroom, he looked at her in an effort to gauge her mental wellbeing. And upon seeing that she seemed to be in shock he then grabbed a rag and wet it with some water from the tap and took a moment to flush the toilet to get rid of the acidic smell of her stomach contents.

Once that was done, he wrung the rag out and then knelt down and gently wiped her face in an effort to get her to calm down while attempting to listen to what his brother and Bruce were talking about in the bedroom.

Sadly, he could only make out various snippets of conversation between the two about whether or not someone should be alerted about what had just happened.

Bruce was firmly _for_ it. For obvious reasons, plus the fact that someone had not only _threatened_ Ichigo, but her family and friends as well. Which probably also included them, Tony, and the others too.

Whereas Loki was against it.

Arguing the point that if anyone else was told then their lives would be in even _greater_ danger than they already were. He also pointed out that whoever had called the girl had probably expected her to be alone at the time of the call so that she would have to deal with the threat and the aftermath of the death on her own in isolation.

Thor hated to admit it, but despite the timing of the phone call, Loki was probably right. Whoever had just threatened the girl had obviously believed her to be alone.

The murder of the other girl was nothing more than a very dark and grim message. _Keep our secrets or others will die too._

_Oh_ how he'd love to get his hands on the person/people responsible for doing this to young Ichigo. He would teach the knave a lesson that he/they would never be likely to ever forget. But for the moment, he needed to content himself with seeing what he could do to help the girl.

He had a feeling that once she managed to shake off the shocked state that she was in- she was going to hit the ground running.

He couldn't exactly say what made him think this. But as the daughter of Tony Stark, he could imagine that she wasn't going to simply be _idle_ while a killer was running around threatening people.

She simply didn't seem like the type to sit and do nothing while people suffered.

Running the rag along her face again, he noted the slight twitch of her body, the way that her eyes slowly seemed to come back into focus.

_Ah, she's coming back to us already._ He thought with a little bit of pride. _Friend Tony's daughter would make a fine Valkyrie._ He mused to himself as she finally blinked and reached up to take the rag from his hand while he sat back on his heels with a grin.

"Tell us what you need." She blinked at him again, perhaps not entirely comprehending. So he helped her along with a gentle nudge. "There is a threat to your family and friends- are you going to stand by and let the killer get away?"

She snarled at him, hellfire blazing in those eerie blue eyes of hers as she hissed out, _"Fuck no."_ His grin got a tad bit darker, and grimmer as he reached out and helped her up and then re stood himself.

"Lead the way, little one. This is your fight, all I can do is offer my services should you need them." He said gently.

"Thanks. They'll definitely come in handy." She said as she brushed by him and walked out of the bathroom with him practically skipping after her in excitement.

He really couldn't wait to see what she would do. He'd bet that whatever she decided on was going to be _spectacular._

* * *

"Friday, contact Rhodey and tell him to come back here immediately!" Ichigo said as she walked back into the room and brushed by Bruce and Loki, not even pausing in her movements for a second- not even when she retook possession of her cell phone, eliciting a small, 'Hey' of protest from the two men- and headed over to her dresser and began to go through the drawers and pull stuff out.

"Right away, mini boss."

"What are you doing Ichigo?" Bruce demanded when she pulled something that looked like a medium sized duffle bag out of one of the drawers and tossed it onto the bed.

"What's it look like Doc? I'm packing to go hunt down that _bastard_." She spat the word 'bastard' as if it were the most vile word in the world to her.

Startling both Bruce and Loki a little bit with the venom in her tone.

"Ichigo-" Bruce said as he walked over to her and grabbed her hands in his, "I know that the guy killed someone and even threatened you but-" He started to say that it would be best for her to stay put and let them handle this when the door to her bedroom opened and Rhodey stepped in looking as if he'd just attempted to run a marathon in his braces.

"What happened?!" The man shouted at them once he managed to catch his breath enough to speak.

Ichigo wasted no time in yanking her hands loose of his grip and walking over to the man and showing him her cell. Or more specifically, the pictures that had been sent to her as she ordered Friday to kindly play the phone call for him to hear.

They watched as Rhodey's expression went from vexed to utterly murderous in the span of seconds before he flipped her cell closed and then handed it back to her and asked, "Is this about your former work with _those_ people?"

"It is..."

_"Shit."_ He man growled out as he ran his hands over his face in frustration. "Your going to go after whoever did that to that girl, aren't you?"

"That _girl_ was a former schoolmate and dear friend of mine." Ichigo said before then tacking on. "She had special abilities just like a lot of other people that I know and are friends with back home. This...this was a personal attack on not just me- but everyone of them as well. I _can't_ let it stand. I can't let whoever did this do it to someone else. Please understand..."

"I do understand kid," Rhodey said as he reached out and took hold of one of her small hands and gave it s slight squeeze. "And I get it. I really do. I just don't like...that I won't be able to help you. Not when I answer to the Accords Council."

"Don't worry about it so much," Ichigo said gently. "I need you to stay and hold down the fort anyways."

Rhodey sighed, his shoulders slumping some in a defeated gesture that was surprising to see given how much he'd been fighting through of late. But it was no less understandable. "Alright. What do you need? Do you need me to get the jet prepped? I can have it fueled and ready to go in an hour. And do you need any suits? I can send a few with you if you do."

"I appreciate the thought. But no. I don't need suits or the jet. And I won't be doing this alone either. Thor has already offered his services to help me out. And I think Loki and Bruce might come with me too."

"Damn right I will." Bruce muttered while Loki smiled.

Rhodey looked at the three men for a moment before reluctantly nodding his head. Motioning for Ichigo to tell him everything that she could.

Like how she was going to get to Japan without a plane. How long she was going to be gone. How was she going to find the guy responsible for killing her friend ect.

The girl barely took a breath while she laid everything out for him. Mentioning that she needed to contact her godfather- he hadn't been aware that she had one back in Japan- but he supposed that it made sense since she hadn't grown up in America.

She also pulled out a little beaded bracelet and grinned evilly as she took a bead from it and showed him what they could do.

Because apparently she was armed _all_ the time with things that could be classified as weapons of mass destruction. I mean honestly, portals to different locations in the world, portals to pocket dimensions, beads containing wildfires, lava, hurricanes, tsunami's, a _solar flare_ straight from the goddamned _sun_ itself.

He had no fucking idea how she had managed to keep those things contained inside of little beads- but he knew that he was _definitely_ sold on them after she used one to transport him to Hawaii and back in the blink of an eye.

"C-Can I?" Was all that he could manage to get out as he pointed to the bead that she had just picked up off of the floor. She gave him a small smile- though it didn't reach her eyes- and handed the bead to him.

He took a moment to marvel a it and coo at it in a ridiculous manner, "I'm going to have so many vacations with you, yes I am." Before then clearing his throat when he caught Thor, Loki, and Bruce staring at him oddly as he asked. "How exactly are you going to manage to hunt the guy down? I mean, you're still wounded from being shot earlier today. And then there was that whole _heart_ stopping thing."

"Believe it or not, I have a friend back home that can literally bend the laws of physics to her will. She can heal injuries and even bring the dead back to life...within a few minutes after death. I'll just have her heal me before I do anything...strenuous."

"Wait-" Bruce started to say something about what she'd just mentioned but Rhodey cut him off with a loud shout.

_"What?!"_

Ichigo huffed quietly as she began sorting through her duffle bag, randomly pulling out some things. Trackers- trackers would come in handy for Thor, Loki, and Bruce since they'd be coming with her. It would help them all keep tabs on each other and be able to find each other faster in case things went tit's up.

She also pulled out several semi automatic guns with special ammunition. And took a moment or so to check each weapon and it's clip- totally missing the way that Rhodey and everyone else practically did a double take upon noticing her handling the guns with such expertise.

The others she could understand reacting that way. But Rhodey? Not so much. Especially since he knew a little bit about her former line of work. Sure it was technically a cover story for her real job- but still... Did he really think that she wouldn't be around guns when she worked for the 'military'?

True Soul Reapers weren't exactly the type of people to pack heat. But they did carry weapons of all sorts. Not just zanpaktou's, scythes, spears and such. Some of them carries parodies of guns, rocket launchers, flame throwers, ect.

Those fucking things _hurt_ like a son of a bitch when they hit you too.

Even so- Ichigo's knowledge of guns stemmed from her years of being dragged into alley's by gang members, yakuza, thugs, and even her dad- well...Isshin.

The second that he'd had found out that someone had threatened her with a weapon of any kind, he'd dragged her off and taught her how to use a gun, a knife, and her fists.

He'd wanted her to be able to defend herself well enough to give as good as she got.

And it was a damned good thing that he taught her those things since those skills had proven to be incredibly useful over the years.

Once she finished checking the guns, she grabbed three extra ones out of the duffle bag along with some clips of ammo and walked over to Rhodey and held them out to him.

"You, Pepper, and Happy will need these until the guy that killed Chizuru is caught."

He didn't even bother to hesitate to reach out and take them from her. Likely sensing that something much deeper was going on if she felt the need to arm him and the others with something in her possession, and given the fact that she had such _interesting_ toys... Who was he to argue?

"What are they?"

"Guns."

"Well yeah I can see that but-"

"They're guns with very specific ammunition," Ichigo said as she retook the one of the guns from him and pulled the clip out to show him. "These aren't your typical bullets. They contain very strong tranquilizers that can take down mutant, and supers." She slipped the clip back into place and handed it back to him as she continued to explain, "The guy that killed Chizuru, is for all intents and purposes- an enhanced individual. He'll give himself away if he comes here. He'll be too excited about the possibility of pulling one over on me to bother to cover his ass. _Shoot him_. Don't hesitate. He'll kill you if you do."

She held up another of her little beads and then tacked on. "Once he's down use this to trap him. It's specifically designed to be used as a prison. It's undamageable, and unbreakable. So there's no chance of him managing to escape. Once he's in- he won't be getting back out again unless you let him out yourself."

She handed him several other beads, indicating that he, Pepper, and Happy should each carry one just to be on the safe side. And then turned and handed the others each a weapon.

Thor and Loki balked a little bit due to being unfamiliar with guns. After all, they had been raised to use swords.

Whereas Bruce simply checked it and slipped his in the waist of his pants for further use. After that she handed each of them a tracker- and explained that they were to wear them at all times while they were with her in Japan.

She pointed out that _not_ having the weapons or trackers on them could put their lives in danger and make it very difficult to help them in time to possibly save their lives.

So once each of them had slipped their trackers on- each one cleverly made to look like vintage pieces of jewelry. Rings, and a pair of neat looking gold cufflinks. She then called out to Friday to call someone and put them on speaker as she rattled off the number that she needed to call.

A second or so the phone was dialed and someone was answering on the first ring.

"Ichigo! Is that you kid?" A man asked sharply. He sounded... _worried_. So maybe he already had an idea of what had happened and had simply been waiting for her to get into contact with him?

"Kisuke, I need you to do a head count, and implement the code The Substitute."

The guy didn't say anything for a second, whereas Thor mouthed the words 'The Substitute' questioningly at Bruce whom merely shrugged, but then swore viciously and growled out, "Implementing the code The Substitute." The guy muttered as they heard the vague sounds of fingers flying over a keyboard before he said, "Got it. Head count beginning. You should be able to see the red dots on your cell any second now."

"Understood." Ichigo said as she grabbed her cell phone and checked it. Sure enough, the screen of her cell was filled with little red dots. Dozens upon dozens of them that quickly multiplied into hundreds and then thousands. "Alright, I got the head count. Number is confirmed. Forty three thousand six hundred and ten." She said as she slowly flipped her cell closed and then pocketed it in her PJ pants.

Rhodey and the others blinked at the number that Ichigo had just quoted. Wondering what the significance was. After all, it wasn't as if she could have that many friends. Could she?

"Are you coming home kid?" The man asked after a moment or so of silence.

"I am."

"Awesome. The street haven't run red with anybody's blood in nearly a year so this should be fun."

"War is always fun." Ichigo said as she gathered up her duffle of weapons and goodies and then grabbed the bead that created a portal leading from one location to another as she said. "But only when you're on the winning side."

"Kid, any side you are on is always the winning side. I've never known anyone to send so many assholes fleeing in utter terror before... Since we're implementing the code The Substitute- does this mean that your coming out of retirement for a little bit?"

"Someone killed Chizuru, Kisuke. She was one of ours and under _my_ protection. And I want their fucking blood."

"I know." The guy said softly before then saying, "The others will start to trickle in within an hour. Anyone who doesn't show up- I can send Chad or someone else after- so that they get here before anything happens."

"Good. I'll be there in a few minutes-"

"Alright."

"And Kisuke...I'm bringing some friends."

"Friends? What friends?"

"You'll see when I get there," She said before leaning over some and kissing Rhodey on the cheek and whispering that she'd call him later with updates and then tossed the bead against the far wall and watched as the portal contained within it opened. "Gentlemen, follow me."


	24. Chapter 24

Stepping through the portal that Ichigo had made, was what Bruce imagined, stepping into Wonderland was like for Alice. Everything was simply... _strange_. In fact at the moment, they seemed to be someplace questionable. One look around got him no sort of visual information to go on as to their whereabouts.

Well, nothing except the endless stretch of nothingness that seemed almost akin to a deserted wasteland.

Or at least he would have assumed it was a deserted wasteland- if not for the fact that he could see a ladder. Way, _way_ off somewhere several miles or so from their immediate location. But that was nothing like what he felt was coming.

He heard them before he saw them. But only because there were so damn many of them that their feet moving sounded weirdly like animal's stampeding towards them.

If not for the fact that he moved automatically to place himself between Ichigo and... _whatever_ was making that very alarming sound, then he wouldn't have been aware of moving at all. Much less the fact that he was starting to turn green a bit.

The second that he saw them, he seemed to calm himself down enough to stop turning green and simply stared at them. Behind him he heard Thor and Loki both murmur something between the two of them about how many there were.

They weren't wrong either.

He'd never seen so _many_ people fill up one space before. He was only mildly alarmed by the fact that so many of them seemed to pop into existence out of thin air in such a short amount of time. But he understood enough to quickly realize that they had likely appeared via portals themselves.

What he really found interesting though, was that a great number of them were kids about Ichigo's age- give or take a year or so- while many of the others that appeared were either young adults barely in their twenties or men about his own age. While only a small handful of the people present looked as if they were in their eighties and just so damn happy to still be alive, if their expressions were anything to go by at all.

A small slip of a girl, a tall red haired guy with face tattoo's, and a select few of the people dared to break away from everyone else so that they could walk up to them.

The small slip of a girl wasted no time at all in shoving him aside, much to Bruce's dismay, just to get to Ichigo before then latching onto her like a adorable little leech.

Ichigo huffed quietly and hugged the small girl as she greeted the others.

"Renji, Chad, Kisuke, Orihime, Uryu, Ganju, Honatoro."

Of course they also wasted no time in attaching themselves to her either. Their names had just barely left her lips before they had her surrounded, subtly pushing him even further away from her.

Bruce bristled. He couldn't help it.

Being pushed away from her was starting to upset him greatly. Especially since this was an unknown group of people with who-knew- _what_ kind of intentions towards her. The fact that she knew them meant little in the grand scheme of things. The fact that they were probably her friends also meant little to him at the moment.

For fucks sake he'd left Tony alone with those assholes that he used to think were their friends. He wasn't going to leave Tony's little girl open to some sort of attack from her 'friends' too!

He was fully prepared to Hulk out and smash _all_ of them to pieces if they dared to say or do anything even remotely hurtful to her.

Everyone took turns getting hugs, totally ignoring the guy with the malicious toxic green eyes even when the one adult amongst the group- a scruffy looking ash blond guy with a striped white and green hat- moved to stand beside him and quietly looked him, Thor, and Loki over for a second.

Apparently he was sizing them up. Though for what Bruce couldn't immediately tell.

"Man, oh man when she said she was bringing some new friends; I thought that she'd be bringing some more kids." The guy said a little bit too loudly to be ignored. "It never occurred to me that she'd be bringing two gods and a Hulk home."

"Wait a second, you know who we are?" Bruce asked suspiciously as the guy smirked at him.

"Sure." Blondy said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I keep track of everyone that could become a threat to _my_ kids. But more specifically, a threat to Ichigo."

Bruce opened his mouth to tell the guy that he'd never do anything to hurt the girl. But Thor cut him off with a smoothly said, "Lady Ichigo will not be harmed by any of us. She is the child of a friend. That makes her one of us." Thor paused for a moment before then adding, "Besides, she had offered to help my brother. And it is a debt that I cannot let go unpaid."

The blond guy smiled at Thor and waved his hand as if to wave off his words as he said, "Oh I know that. She doesn't usually make a habit of bringing dangerous people home _before_ they try to kill her though. I think it's bad luck or something."

"Wait. _What_?" Both Bruce and Loki said in alarm as they tried to figure out what the guy meant as the small group finally separated themselves from the girl so that she could move to stand across from Blondy, and flick him between the eyes with her fingers.

He yelped and staggered back a few steps, his hands shooting up to his forehead as he whined, " _Ow!_ Now is that any way to respect your elders?!"

"I'll respect my elder when he stops tweaking the noses of my friends." She deadpanned.

"Your so mean to me, Ichigo." The man whined. She gave him a strange look before then saying,

"You don't know just how mean I can really be Kisuke. Now stop whining."

Kisuke promptly snapped his mouth shut. Apparently taking her words for the warning that they were before slowly saying. "Alright, I get it. Joke time is over," And then took a moment to dig around the inside of his overcoat for a moment before then pulling something- carefully folded black fabric that he held out to her. "Time to put your uniform on and make your return semi-official kid."

Ichigo took the folded up fabric from him and shook it out. Giving them a slight glimpse of what the fabric was.

It looked a tad bit like the man's own overcoat with the exception of the color and detail. Hers was black. Jet black, and looked like it was made of pure silk. With the embroidered words _Piercer of the Heavens; Dragon of the God's_ on the back of it in scarlet red, and gold letters surrounded by what looked like flames that they got to see very clearly when she slipped it on.

Once that was done, she took a moment to change herself into a Soul Reaper while still in her body, knowing that the three men wouldn't know or really notice the change until they looked at her directly. The only thing that they probably would _really_ take note of was Zangetsu when it suddenly appeared on her back.

Which they did.

She heard Bruce start cussing a blue streak that almost made her smile in amusement while Loki and Thor tried to calm him down before he turned green on them.

Once that was done, Kisuke handed her a small device that she was to attach to her temple, underneath her hair. It was a telepathy device that she'd asked him to try and invent around the time Aizen had been running loose and she'd been having trouble sleeping because of how worried she was.

And while she only half understood how it worked, she was very happy that it _worked_ at all. She had taken up often using the thing to help her check in on the others and plan strategies with them without giving herself away to their enemies.

So it was only natural that it would come in handy now.

She attached it and smoothed her hair down over it to hide the slight protrusion and then turned to the others as Kisuke handed her a few more devices.

Rukia, Chad and the others already likely had theirs in place. Which meant that the extra's had been brought for her new friends. _Excellent_.

She'd help them attach them and test them to make sure that they could hear her thoughts and then it was game time. The one/ones who killed Chizuru may know that she was coming for them- but they would _never_ see her coming until it was too late.


End file.
